One peso – around one euro cent or a penny – is on offer for every mosquito brought dead or alive to authorities in Barangay Addition Hills in central Manila.

At least 21 people have already claimed rewards for a combined 700 mosquitoes and larvae, the BBC reports.

However, the scheme has drawn ridicule online, including from commenters who suggested it will lead to “mosquito farming”.

Economists use the term “cobra effect” to refer to this type of perverse incentive, drawing the name from a famous and possibly apocryphal story from British rule in India.

As the story goes, an attempt to tackle the local cobra population by offering a reward for dead snakes led to them being bred for profit – and then, after the scheme was abruptly halted, released into the wild.

The Philippines’ Department of Health declined to tell the BBC whether it views a mosquito bounty as an effective means of tackling the spread of dengue fever.