Does it feel like you can’t step outside without swatting away mosquitoes and getting covered in bites?
Mosquito counts in Saskatoon are up significantly compared with last summer, and people at the city’s riverbank told CBC it’s one of the worst years for mosquitoes they can remember.
“They’re prolific. They’re abundant. I think they’re all over,” Helene Nelson told CBC News.
The city’s mosquitoes “are very strategic,” Derek Williams said.
“They sneak up on you in a way,” he said.
Matt Kreshewski says it’s a miserable situation.
“It’s heinous. I walk adjacent to a sidewalk, and I’m assaulted by at least 1,000 mosquitoes at any given moment, and it’s not fun. I wish they would calm down,” he said.
Stores are quickly selling out of bug spray, and many have imposed limits on the number of cans customers can buy.
Zak’s Home Hardware in Saskatoon is one of the stores that had to impose restrictions. Managers say shelves empty out within 24 hours of a new shipment coming in and that even the central warehouse is backlogged due to the high demand.
“Almost all of our mosquito-related products in general are on back order,” Jonah Berg, a team lead at the store, said.
“If they don’t have it, then unfortunately, we don’t get it. We’re sort of at a standstill right now with how much we can get.”
Berg says customers seem understanding of the store’s shortages and that he’s never seen demand this high in his time working for the company.
“They’re disappointed they can’t get their product, but they’re also sort of saying it seems like it’s about the same throughout the city. So, any of the other retailers that have it seem to be experiencing a similar shortage of bug spray,” he said.
The City of Saskatoon says 168 mosquitoes were found in the city’s traps last week. Only five mosquitoes were found per trap this time last year.
City entomologist Georgiana Antochi-Crihan says it’s all because of the heavy rainfall mixed with humidity. She said mosquito numbers are comparable with years before the city saw drought-like conditions.
“We finally reached a non-drought condition with the amount of rain we’ve had,” Antochi-Crihan told CBC. “The 10-year average [is] 12 mosquitoes on average per trap. That’s, you know, 10 years of drought.”
Antochi-Crihan says people have grown so accustomed to drought conditions that the onslaught of mosquitoes seems abnormal.
“They definitely feel bad right now, but a lot of that might also just be because we aren’t used to seeing as many mosquitoes.”
She says the city is taking precautions to try to limit mosquito activity in large public areas, such as parks.
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“Our teams will go out after every significant rain event to see if there is mosquito activity. And if they meet that threshold, they will apply a product known as Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis,” also known as Bti, Antochi-Crihan said.
“It’s a mosquito-killing bacteria that only affects mosquitoes and closely related allies and is completely safe for people, animals and wildlife. They will start by treating the habitat in the centre of the city first and then work their way outwards.”
She recommends staying on top of mowing lawns and removing any still water sources on the property, like in bird baths, to limit mosquito breeding.
