The Mosquitoes Are Back!

by Chad Kruger 

Edmonton’s weather is slowly getting warmer allowing more and more people to begin heading outside and enjoy the outdoors.  However, those lovely little critters are also going to be out and about, that’s right the mosquitoes are back! 

To help limit the number of mosquitoes, Edmonton’s pest management has started spraying for the insects.  On April 6th air and ground crews began spraying areas of highest risk, mainly standing pools of water. The mosquitoes have four stages in their life cycle: egg, larva, pupa and adult.  This cycle from egg to adult can take as long four months to as short as four days.  By spraying the larva before they get a chance to develop further pest control hopes to limit the numbers of mosquitoes in Edmonton. 

“We have a number of different crews going out and treating habitat where mosquito larva are developing.  Ah so we target those aquatic habitats which is where the larva are more highly concentrated in number and generally the only thing living in most of these sort of temporary habitat is the mosquito larva,”  said Mike Jenkins – Biological Sciences Technincian 

The ground crews carry an air blower strapped to their backs, which allows them to control the flow and direction of the chemical.  With this spring’s dry start Edmonton’s pest management is hoping for a reduced mosquito population, although nothing is certain.