The humble flyswatter is disappearing, and our gadgets may be making us less handy

Sitting in an office full of young people - the oldest would perhaps be in her mid-30s - in Kolkata last week, I idly watched a single annoying fly repeatedly alight on the conference table, perilously near the pastries I had brought for them. One of my favourite poems by Ogden Nash popped up in my mind. "God in his wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why." Having flapped the persistent insect away for the nth time, I wished aloud for a flyswatter.

There was a universal look of incomprehension. "Hit?" asked one finally. "We'll just order it." I shook my head. "No, that's pesticide, bad for us to inhale too," I countered stoutly. Incomprehension was replaced by consternation. How can a fly be despatched without an insecticide spray? "Bat!" said another 20-something. That got me. Bat? As in the winged mammal with vampirish vibes? "No!" they cried, almost in unison. They meant that electric bug zapper, of course.

But having seen how soon those go kaput, I was not inclined to agree with their choice. "Flyswatter," I repeated. That look of incomprehension reappeared. So I found a photo of a flyswatter on my phone to show them. Incredibly, they still looked puzzled. Clearly, these were utterly unfamiliar. I could just as well have been telling them about an arcane medieval torture instrument. "None of you have ever seen one at home, or maybe even in your granny's hand?" I queried.


They had not. And to think that those brightly coloured plastic "weapons of smash destruction" were ubiquitous once; growing up we had a couple of them lying handy in every area of our house given the warm relationship between flies and tropical locations. However, flyswatters are rarely found in homes or stocked in stores anymore now. Even online choices are quite limited and delivery times are long, indicating that they are definitely not fast-moving merchandise.

Trying to swat those swivel-eyed flies with newspapers or attempting a fast hand-grab are fruitless. Which would mean that without a battery-operated bat or an aerosol that poisons the air as well as the fly, youngsters these days just put up with those pesky arthropods. Why did such a simple yet efficient implement fall out of fashion? Just because a swatter messily squishes flies on a surface while bats neatly zap them in mid-air? Was the ickiness level the deciding factor?

Swatting flies requires some hand-eye coordination and lightning reflexes, which are taxing for today's humans. Presumably it is easier to randomly wave an electric bat in the general direction of airborne insects and wait for them to make deadly contact. Humans are becoming dependent on technology where once elbow grease did the job. Washing machines, dishwashers, food processors, robot vacuum cleaners, even pre-chopped ingredients have made our limbs lax.

Thus, without electricity-powered modern conveniences, quotidian life comes to a standstill in the West - as happened in Canada last week after a thunderstorm caused a three-day power outage. Even if people are willing to use their arms, legs and other God-given tools again, they cannot do so as systems are not geared for it. Life is not totally at the mercy of gadgets yet in India, but we are getting there, as the reaction of those Kolkata youngsters to handheld swatters revealed.

The market for electric swatters was valued at $1.26 billion worldwide in 2025 and is expected to nearly double by 2035. Moreover, the application of ultraviolet and sensor-based technologies has enabled producers and users to affix the adjective "premium" to those bug zappers. As old-fashioned plastic or metal flyswatters are unlikely to get such upgrades, I fear these will not see a resurgence in sales anytime soon. Bu t those youngsters are about to get a useful gift...