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By Angela Brown

Planning Ahead

City looking at future plans to control mosquito numbers

Aug 26, 2020 | 8:00 AM

The City of North Battleford is looking at some ideas about how to further control mosquitoes for the next season.

Sean Prager, a plant sciences and biology assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, gave the city some tips at its recent meeting.

The Town of Battleford engaged in a fogging program on Aug. 5 this year to manage its high mosquito numbers. The city did not conduct any fogging however.

The city continues to use a larvicide program to control its mosquitoes.

Mayor Ryan Bater said the city experienced a high mosquito population this summer after some significant rainfall events.

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“It spurred a bit of a community discussion about what strategies a municipality can use to try and mitigate pests like mosquitoes on an ongoing basis,” he said.

Prager said the concern for mosquitoes in this area is mainly because it is a nuisance insect as there is no real health threat.

While in some other areas, such as Ontario, there can be an increased risk of West Nile virus (WNV) transmitted from an infected Culex tarsalis mosquito, there is much less risk here.

The Government of Saskatchewan reported on Aug. 15, all Culex tarsalis mosquito pools tested for WNV have been negative. The WNV transmission risk is minimal to low.

Prager said he is not a proponent of fogging to eradicate skeeters, as he said it is only a temporary measure until the next large rainfall essentially.

“The best thing you can do is not have a lot of standing water around,” he said. “The next best thing you can do to control them is with larvicides.”

He encourages residents to make sure they remove any standing water, such as in bird baths and in eavestroughs, where mosquitoes lay their eggs, as the first line of defence.

Prager said some larger municipalities, such as Saskatoon, trap mosquitoes and track the population to better manage their numbers. If a municipality sees an increase above a certain threshold, it would then decide to go and treat standing water with larvicide.

And on the issue of controling mosquito numbers with dragonflies, he said while they can reduce mosquito numbers on some level, there would need to be a significant amount of dragonflies. Ultimately it is not the most effective method to knock down mosquito numbers however.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW