A Temple Festival Drew 6,000 People, But Everyone Left Before Nine Because of Mosquitoes From 200 Water Jars
Last updated: 7 Sep 2026 | 2 Views |
A true story from a temple in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
A Temple Festival Drew 6,000 People, But Everyone Left Before Nine Because of Mosquitoes From 200 Water Jars
When mosquitoes on the temple grounds send everyone home early, and a festival prepared for a whole year ends halfway through
A temple in Nakhon Pathom holds a seven-day annual festival drawing more than 6,000 people. Every night the crowd began drifting away before nine, even though the programme ran until eleven. Here is the real cause — which turned out to be inside the temple grounds — and how the AIROFOG AT35 thermal fogger kept people until the end and lifted donations noticeably.
A senior monk who has overseen the temple's annual festival for twelve years described noticing the same pattern every single year: dense crowds from six until eight in the evening, then a steady trickle away from about half past eight, and by nine o'clock the grounds were more than half empty.
What puzzled him was that the programme ran until eleven — likay theatre, other performances, and on some nights an all-night chanting session. Yet the audience remaining after nine was less than a quarter of the early-evening crowd.
The temple committee had always assumed people had to be up for work. Then last year a team of volunteers surveyed 120 people as they walked out, and 83 of them gave the same reason: the mosquitoes had become unbearable.
The 200 water jars nobody thought were a problem
With the survey results in hand, the committee invited the sub-district health officers to survey all 28 rai of the grounds. It took two days. What they found silenced the room, because almost every breeding site was inside the temple grounds rather than outside them.
The largest by far was the water jars and storage vessels scattered everywhere: drinking-water jars outside the monks' quarters, foot-washing jars at the pavilion entrances, reserve water drums behind the kitchen, and containers donated by lay supporters and simply set down. More than 200 in total, over half of them uncovered and genuinely holding larvae.
Second were the holy water basins and the several decorative lotus bowls, plus pots planted with lotus and aquatic plants — still water with cover, which is ideal for egg laying. Third were the flower vases before the principal Buddha image and throughout the pavilions, whose water is changed infrequently.
The officers told the committee plainly that a temple carries far higher risk than most people assume, because it combines a great many water containers, dense mature trees, and large numbers of people gathering at exactly the hours mosquitoes are feeding.
Why a night-time temple fair is close to ideal conditions for mosquitoes
A night festival assembles nearly every factor that favours mosquitoes. First is the hour. The fair is busiest from six until nine in the evening, spanning the peak feeding window for several species.
Second is light. A temple fair carries decorative lighting, stage lighting and stall lighting in abundance, which draws flying insects directly into the event area. The brighter the fair, the more insects concentrate there.
Third is that people sit still. Anyone watching a performance or sitting through chanting stays in one place for tens of minutes to several hours, unlike shoppers who keep moving. Those sitting still are bitten hardest — and they are precisely the people the organisers most want to stay to the end.
Last is clothing. People come to a temple in light, comfortable clothes, often shorts or skirts in the heat, leaving far more skin exposed. And children who come with adults tend to play in the darker, shrubbier corners, which is where mosquito density is highest.
What the temple lost, with nobody counting
An annual festival is not entertainment alone. It is the principal source of funds for the temple's restoration work and activities for the whole year. When people leave before nine, donations, amulet offerings and the committee's own stalls all fall with them.
The committee compared donations by hour across the festival nights and found that the period after nine used to be strong, because people who stay late tend to be those who came specifically to make merit. Today almost nobody remains in that window.
The stallholders renting space were affected too. Several said they did good business only for the first three hours and then it went quiet, so some did not return the following year — which hits the temple's rental income directly.
And what cannot be quantified at all is the spirit of the volunteers and performers who prepare for a whole year. Performing to a few dozen people in an empty ground drains everyone's morale.
The year the temple changed everything
The committee did three things before the following year's festival. First, they dealt with every water container: asking every residence and pavilion to seal their jar lids properly, inverting and storing jars no longer in use, and stocking guppies in every holy water basin and lotus bowl.
Second, they established a weekly breeding-site inspection of the grounds, with the village health volunteers helping walk the route and a map of the points needing repeat checks.
Third — the change that actually shifted the outcome — the temple bought its own thermal foggers, funded by lay donations, because contracting spraying once a year for the festival was neither sufficient nor frequent enough.
They chose two AIROFOG AT35 units and set a schedule: fog the festival ground, the pavilions and the tree lines around the temple every day between three and four in the afternoon throughout the seven days, and once a week during the rest of the year.
What it actually costs
Lost donations are the temple's restoration fund for the year
The annual festival is the main source of funds for maintaining the buildings and running activities all year. When everyone leaves before nine, the donations that should come during the best hours of the night simply never arrive, and planned restoration work is postponed.
The health of attendees, especially children and the elderly
A temple fair brings small children who play in the shrubbery and older people who sit through long chanting sessions. Both groups face more severe dengue outcomes than the general population, so allowing dense mosquito activity on the grounds is a risk the temple should manage.
Stallholders and performers who do not come back
Stallholders who do good business for only three hours stop renting space, and performers playing to a few dozen people lose heart. The quality of the festival then declines the following year, which brings fewer people still — a cycle.
Risk to the surrounding community
A temple is the centre of its community, with people passing through daily. When the grounds hold many breeding sites, the mosquitoes bred there disperse into surrounding homes. Managing mosquitoes at the temple is therefore not only the temple's concern — it affects the health of the whole community.
Why the usual fixes do not work
Burning mosquito coils around the festival ground
Coil smoke reaches a few metres and is carried away quickly in open ground. Worse, lighting many small fires at an event with thousands of people and stalls running gas is a safety risk far out of proportion to the benefit.
Installing electric insect traps around the ground
Traps work within a very limited radius and draw insects toward a light source. At an event already lit brightly throughout, their effect is negligible relative to the size of the grounds.
Handing out repellent to attendees
The cost is enormous multiplied by thousands of people per night, and most never reapply during the evening. Above all it removes no mosquitoes from the grounds, so the problem returns identically the next night.
Contracting a single spray before the festival
One application before the fair helps only for the first day or two, because mosquitoes fly in from the surroundings daily and the breeding sites inside the temple keep producing new generations. A seven-day event requires fogging every day, not once.
Mowing and cleaning up before the festival
Necessary and worth doing, but insufficient, because the principal breeding sites are the 200-plus water containers, the holy water basins and the lotus bowls, none of which mowing addresses — and the existing adult mosquitoes are not reduced by cleaning either.
A multi-day outdoor event needs daily fogging, and the temple needs to be able to do it itself
Once you accept that the festival runs seven consecutive nights and that the breeding sites are inside the grounds, the requirement is clear: keep mosquito numbers on the ground low every single day of the event, alongside removing as many breeding sites as possible before it begins.
A thermal fogger suits a large outdoor event better than anything else, because the fog drifts into the shrubbery around the ground, under the mature trees, beneath the raised pavilions and into the dark corners where mosquitoes rest by day — places coils and traps can never reach.
The right window is three to four in the afternoon, some two to three hours before the fair begins. That is a safe interval for attendees and a calm period, so the fog holds over the area far longer.
And the machine must belong to the temple, because beyond the annual festival there are merit-making ceremonies, funerals and outdoor activities all year that need the same management. That is why the committee chose the AIROFOG AT35, with its durable stainless body and service available inside Thailand.
10 reasons the AIROFOG AT35 thermal fogger solves it
1. Fog reaches shrubbery, under raised pavilions and the tree lines around the ground
Mosquitoes on temple grounds rest in ornamental shrubbery, under mature trees, beneath raised pavilions and in still corners behind the residences. The AIROFOG AT35 produces a fog that genuinely drifts into these places — impossible for coils and electric traps across 28 rai.
2. Covers a large event area in well under two hours
The festival ground and surrounds of a 28-rai temple take two operators carrying the AT35 about ninety minutes for a full pass — short enough to genuinely repeat every day across all seven days, finishing before the stallholders set up.
3. Carried on foot where no vehicle can go
Temple grounds have narrow paths between residences, gravel courtyards, garden areas and space behind pavilions that no vehicle can reach. The AT35 is light enough to walk everywhere, including the cremation area and the fence line adjoining vacant land.
4. A 100 percent stainless steel body that lasts for years
A temple uses the machine less often than a factory, but needs it to work reliably when the time comes. A stainless body does not corrode even when stored in a humid store room, so equipment donated by lay supporters lasts many years and honours the donation.
5. Monks and temple volunteers can operate it themselves
A temple has no specialist crew. The AT35 is simple enough to train two or three people — the lay steward, a temple worker, or the village health volunteers — so fogging becomes something the temple can do itself without waiting for anyone.
6. Runs both water-based and oil-based formulations
Temple grounds combine open areas with places needing care, such as near fish ponds or the kitchen. Accepting both formulation types lets you use the product the health officers recommend, matched appropriately to each area.
7. Compliant with Thai government standard equipment specifications
For temples receiving support from government agencies, or sub-district and municipal offices and temple schools procuring under public procurement regulations, meeting the official standard equipment schedule makes budgeting and acceptance inspection straightforward.
8. Certified to German and British standards
Certification means the machine has been tested for safety and droplet-size consistency, which matters greatly when treating an area that thousands of people will enter within a few hours — it means predictable results and controlled chemical use.
9. 100 percent quality control before dispatch
Every unit is run-tested before shipping. For a temple that uses the machine only in certain periods but absolutely must have it working on festival day, that assurance is worth more than a discount.
10. A Thai service centre with genuine parts and 10-plus years of technician experience
An annual festival cannot be postponed, because the date follows the lunar calendar. A fault before the festival with a month-long wait for overseas parts means no machine for the entire event. Domestic service and genuine parts are essential.
Before the thermal fogger
- The crowd thinning from before nine every night, though the programme ran to eleven
- Of 120 people surveyed leaving early, 83 said it was the mosquitoes
- Almost no donations coming in after nine o'clock
- Several stallholders not returning the following year
- More than 200 water containers found on the grounds, over half uncovered with larvae
- Performers playing to a few dozen people in an empty ground
After the thermal fogger
- Large numbers staying until eleven on every night
- Total donations clearly up against the previous year
- All stallholders returning, plus new ones asking to join
- Every water container covered, and larvivorous fish in the basins and lotus bowls
- Weekly breeding-site inspections by the village health volunteers
- The temple able to fog for every merit-making event all year without contracting
The three-step process
1. Survey the grounds and deal with every water container before the festival
Walk the whole property with the village health volunteers, counting and marking every water container: jars, drums, vases, lotus bowls, holy water basins, plant saucers and gutters. Seal the lids, invert and store those not in use, and stock larvivorous fish in anything that must hold water.
2. Fog every day between three and four in the afternoon throughout the festival
Begin around three, before the stallholders set up and two to three hours before people arrive. Concentrate on the shrubbery around the ground, under the mature trees, beneath the pavilions, the fence line, and wherever seating for the performances will be. Repeat every day for all seven days.
3. Log the results and make it a year-round temple routine
Record every application alongside the weekly breeding-site inspection, and after the festival assess how late people stayed and how donations compared with last year. Then set a weekly application through the rest of the year so the population never rebuilds.
From someone who uses one
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Water containers at a temple: a breeding source that cooperation can solve
A temple holds more water containers than anywhere else in a community: drinking jars outside the residences, reserve drums behind the kitchen, foot-washing jars at the pavilions, decorative lotus bowls, holy water basins and flower vases almost everywhere. Many of them arrived as well-meant donations from lay supporters.
The approach that works without disrupting their use is to sort them into three groups. Those still in use get properly sealed lids. Those no longer needed are inverted and stored under cover. And those that must hold water, such as holy water basins and lotus bowls, are stocked with guppies or fighting fish, which eat larvae readily.
Flower vases before the Buddha image and around the pavilions are the most forgotten, because the water is usually changed only when the flowers wilt — which can be more than seven days. The simple fix is to change vase water weekly as part of the routine cleaning.
What makes all of this work is cooperation. When the temple announces that it is doing this for everyone's health, the community responds well — and many temples find that lay supporters start donating jar lids themselves.
A temple is a community hub, so managing mosquitoes there helps the whole district
In much of Thailand the temple is where the community passes through most: morning alms, funerals, ordinations, village meetings and activities for older residents. When the grounds hold many breeding sites, the mosquitoes bred there naturally disperse into the surrounding homes.
Conversely, when a temple manages mosquitoes well, the benefit does not stop at the wall. It reduces numbers across the surrounding area, which is why many districts use the temple as the starting point for dengue control campaigns.
A temple is also the most effective place to communicate with a community. When a monk announces the importance of inverting containers and sealing jar lids during a merit-making ceremony, that message reaches people more completely and draws more cooperation than any public notice.
Many temples that own a thermal fogger also help their surrounding community during outbreaks — treating the temple school, the community hall, or the homes of elderly neighbours. That is the fullest possible use of what lay supporters donated.
Frequently asked questions
Is fogging safe on temple grounds with people present?
Yes, with the right procedure: give advance notice, clear people from the area being treated, cover food and drinking water, and allow roughly 30 to 60 minutes before people return. The operator must wear full protective equipment every time.
When should we fog for a night-time event?
Three to four in the afternoon is best. It sits two to three hours before the event begins, the wind is settling so the fog holds over the area, and it finishes before stallholders start setting up, so it does not disrupt preparations.
Does a seven-day festival really need fogging every day?
Yes. Mosquitoes fly in from the surroundings daily, and thermal fog acts on the adult mosquitoes present at that moment. A single application before the festival helps only for the first day or two.
How many machines do grounds of my size need?
Up to about 15 rai, one machine is enough. For 20 to 40 rai, two, so a full pass finishes within ninety minutes before the event opens. Very large temples, or those with separated zones, should consider three.
Should we fog when there is no event?
Yes — weekly through the rainy season and once or twice a month in the dry, concentrating on the residences, pavilions, kitchen and tree lines, alongside a weekly check of the water containers, so the population never rebuilds.
Can temple staff operate it?
Yes. Designate two or three responsible people — the lay steward, a temple worker, or village health volunteers — and train them fully on mixing, protective equipment and cleaning the machine after every use.
Can a temple buy this with lay donations?
Yes, and many do, opening it as a specific merit-making project. It usually draws good support because it directly concerns the community's health, and the temple can show donors a record of how the equipment is used each year.
What if the machine has a problem just before the festival?
AIROFOG maintains a service centre and genuine parts in Thailand with technicians of more than 10 years' experience, so issues are resolved quickly. Temples are advised to test-run the machine at least two weeks before the festival, leaving time for service or parts if needed.
Twelve years, and nobody asked why people were leaving early
The most direct lesson here is that we can observe a problem every year without ever finding the answer, because we have already supplied ourselves with an explanation. Asking a hundred people on their way out took less than one evening and answered a question that had stood for twelve years.
A merit-making festival prepared over a whole year deserves care through to its final hour, and people who came to make merit deserve to stay to the end rather than leaving because the mosquitoes became unbearable.
Managing mosquitoes at a temple is therefore not a matter of comfort. It looks after the faith of those who come, the spirit of the volunteers who prepared everything, and the health of the whole community that uses the temple as its centre.
Talk to the World Health Disinfection team about the right machine and a fogging plan for your temple's annual festival or outdoor community event.
See the machine and pricing — click here
Call 065-556-6294 or add LINE @whd268
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