Whining, biting, annoying mosquitoes are back (with video)

REGINA Mosquitoes are one of the summers greatest nuisances, and the City of Regina is ramping up for another year of trying to rid the city of the itch-producing bloodsuckers.

Were not trapping anything yet, but the mosquito larvae are there and there will be mosquitoes this year, Ray Morgan, the citys pest control manager, said Thursday morning at a press conference where city staff showed off their pest management techniques.

Airborne adult mosquitoes havent emerged yet it turns out the colder spring weather this year has been good for one thing. But the larval populations are already booming in sloughs, standing water and puddles around the city, like the one just south of the Ring Road on Lewvan Drive where orange-vested staff blasted pellets of larvicide into the water.

Even weather conditions, if you compare it to last year, were even a little bit behind, Morgan said. The cooler temperatures are keeping things at bay here, and maybe thats a benefit because it lets us get ahead of the game.

City workers fan out across Regina, and even five to 10 kilometres out of city limits, starting in mid-April to begin the process of killing off mosquito larvae. Keeping track of the volumes and conditions of the larvae as they come out of the winter hibernation period is key, Morgan said. So is applying the pelleted biological larvicide VectoBac to the water.

Once the adult mosquitoes begin to emerge, the city monitors the dozen or so traps around Regina to estimate numbers and determine which species of mosquitoes have made their appearance, including those which can carry West Nile virus.

Its still too early in the season to determine what this years mosquito outlook will be, but by early June the city should have a better guess of how many bites you might be nursing this summer.

Those who fear that familiar high-pitched whine of a mosquito trapped in their house as they try to drift off to a summer nights sleep can take steps to try to control the population of the biting beasties too.

If youve got standing water in your yard, paddling pools, even plastic bags that are laying in your yard, they all can hold water, Morgan said.

Those tiny pools of water can become mosquito breeding grounds, so eliminating as many of those sites as possible is a good start.

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Whining, biting, annoying mosquitoes are back (with video)