 |
Mobil started out as an oil company drilling and marketing oil
products. Previously known as the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Mobil is an American oil company which merged with Exxon in 1999 to form the parent company now called ExxonMobil. It was previously one of the Seven Sisters which dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s until the 1970s. Mobil continues today as a major brand name within the combined company concomitantly being a gas station and pairing with its own store or On the Run.
In 2013, it decided to diversify and started producing insecticides with Chemagro Nigeria getting the franchise to become its sole distributor in Nigeria in 2014. Mobil
insecticide became very popular for its proficiency in exterminating insects of
all kind. It gained acceptance particularly in the black-skin parts of Africa
due to the preponderance of harmful insects like mosquitoes and cockroaches.
In Nigeria however, Mobil insecticide has become very scarce
with almost no one knowing the reason for that. With this scarcity came the
dawn of fakes, it is believed that adulterators collect exhausted cylinders
from refuse dumps and refill them with adulterated fluids; it is not known if
the authorities of the Mobil conglomerate are aware of this development. Even though
these fakes are still scantily available in neighborhood stores, with
experience I have come to master tactics for identifying them.
- Multiple dents: The cylinder of a fake usually has dentations around its circumference possibly due to multiple impacts prior to collection from the refuse dump.
- Scratches: A fake will have the paint on some sides scratched off. They will mostly like come from home use by the initial initial user or again; from impacts on the refuse dump.
- Very liquid feel: When the cylinder of a fake is shaken, it feels more like a container of liquid rather than compressed air. In other words, the cylinder feels heavier.
- Coldness: When the cylinder of a fake is agitated (shaken), it becomes very cold; almost like cold water from the refrigerator.
- No packaging: Fakes are usually left standing naked on the shelf with no form of packaging, even though devout crooks would still find their way around that.
When a fake Mobil insecticide is in use, two major things are
observed:
- The smell is very weak; some kinds of people might even stay in a room that has been sprayed without showing any significant allergies.
- You spray for longer periods before the room is saturated consequently, it takes just a few days before you run out of insecticide.
It should be noted that these fakes still work to some extent
but are never as effective or economical as the original.
