City of Regina begins 2023 mosquito control program

With spring in full swing, the City of Regina has launched its 2023 mosquito program.

“It’s been a late spring for us all, so we’re a little bit behind in terms of timing but we’re going to do it from basically May 1 to the end of August,” Russell Eirich, who’s in charge of integrated pest management, said Wednesday.

“That’s 125 days or so and we’ll provide reports when needed.”

The city has released its first set of mosquito counts. The city has 12 traps throughout the city, with two in each of six zones. Additionally, Eirich said the city also has two traps outside of the city for reference.

Eirich said that as of last week, only one mosquito had been found in the city’s traps.

“It’s a mosquito-free season so far,” Eirich said.

City crews demonstrated their treatment plan for mosquitoes near a marsh in Regina’s east end Wednesday.

The crews treated a body of water with Vectobac, an organic insecticide that kills mosquito larvae.

“We’re really trying to get them before they come out as adults,” Eirich said.

As for how many mosquitoes Regina can expect to see this summer, Eirich said that will depend on the weather. Peak numbers usually are observed around the end of July.

“We do get affected by summer storms, so those heavy thunderstorms where you get lots of rain in a hurry and the water can’t drain, that’s when we start to see mosquitoes develop,” he said. “And usually after a thunderstorm or something, you’ll see mosquitoes emerge throughout the summer, usually about a week after that storm.”

Eirich said 20 per cent of the city’s efforts go towards the area where the demonstration was hosted.

“It’s a wide stretch of marshland and so mosquitoes come out of here a lot, so we really try to put an intensive focus on this piece of space here,” Eirich said.

Eirich said Regina residents can help keep the mosquito population low by emptying things of standing water that might be in their backyard like bird baths, pails and buckets.

“If you’ve got a pail lying over from the snowmelt where the mosquitoes can develop, that pail can develop a thousand mosquitoes,” he said.