Mosquito numbers down in Saskatoon, West Nile virus watch begins

Around this time of year in Saskatoon, mosquito repellent tends to be a hot commodity.

But with the drier temperatures and spaced out rainy days in the Bridge City, the count of the blood-sucking nuisance pests are lower than usual.

• Mosquito counts down in Regina

"Our numbers are fairly low when you compare to last year," said Jeff Boone, the city's acting superintendent of urban forestry and pest management.

He said there are traps set up in eight neighbourhoods throughout the city. For the week of June 27 to July 1, there was an average of about four mosquitoes caught per night pertrap.

That's significantly lower than the city's five-year average of 96 mosquitoes during this time of year.

The low count doesn't mean themosquitoes will stay away. Boone said all it takes is for a few days of rain to bring those numbers up because nuisance mosquitoes are dependent on 25 mm or more of rain.

West Nile virus watch begins

Although the numbers of nuisance mosquitoes are down, Boone said monitoring for the West Nile virus carrying Culex tarsalis has begun.

He said this particular breed of mosquito is more dependent on stable conditions and hot weather.

"We're just starting to see low numbers of those," he said, adding that they usually peak around the August long weekend.

"The next, probably, 10-14 days will tell us a lot about that story. If those numbers continue to stay low then we are usually in pretty good shape with respect to West Nile transmission."

How you can help

Boone said the city will continue to spray for mosquitoes until the end of August.

But in the meantime, here are some tips to help control the mosquito population:

• Remove standing water from your property.
• Ensure items that can collect water are regularly emptied or replaced with clean water.
• Clean eavestroughs regularly.
• Ensure openings in rain barrels are covered withmosquitoscreening.