Pest control officials collected about 12,000 mosquitoes from four traps in one week, far exceeding the 1,500 last year.
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It’s a season of swat Calgarians haven’t seen in years.
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The city’s mosquito count this summer confirms what many have suspected: All that itching and scratching indicates that the bloodsucking insects are having a banner summer.
Pest control officials collected about 12,000 mosquitoes from four traps in a week, a number that far exceeds the 1,500 from all of last year, said Sarah Verdiel, the city’s integrated pest management technician.
The 2020 count was a bit higher than last year, but still just a bite out of this summer’s insect bonanza, he said.
“The numbers are so high that we have switched to counting them by weight,” Verdiel said.
“It’s more than we’ve seen in the last couple of years combined…we’ve been really lucky so far.”
This year’s count is not historically unknown “but it’s also not typical,” Verdiel said.
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While last year’s drought conditions meant a major outbreak for mosquitoes, this summer has been a perfect storm for their resurgence, he said.
Calgary was inundated with 130 millimeters of rain in June, followed by a shower in early July that left a lot of standing water, and then a heat wave that produced swarms of hatchlings.
The recent heat, Verdiel said, has only accelerated Calgarians’ discomfort.
“Those eggs can be adult mosquitoes that are looking for blood within 24 hours and even warmer temperatures at night maintain that faster rate,” he said.
But if the heat continues and rain remains minimal, those numbers should start to drop, Verdiel said.
The traps used by the city to monitor mosquito populations, baited with dry ice, are largely located in areas on the east side of the city where agricultural land and temporary water abound.
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It’s always possible for rain to hatch dormant eggs laid on the edges of standing water in previous years, as it did this summer, the city’s pest manager said.
“If you suddenly take a little bit of water, they are rehydrated,” he said.
Last weekend, city officials sprayed bacterial larvicide from helicopters in areas in and around the city that are known to be active mosquito breeding areas.
Verdiel said another round of chemical monitoring could be in the offing based on the number of weather-dependent trap samples.
City officials also monitor the potential for potentially fatal West Nile virus, though Verdiel said few of the mosquitoes that carry the disease are being discovered in city traps.
“Fortunately, those types of mosquitoes also prefer to feed on birds,” he said.
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Experts say the best way to protect yourself from mosquitoes is to use insect repellant, wear long, light-colored clothing, and avoid long grass and dawn and dusk hours when insects are most active.
Some Calgary retail stores, like the Real Canadian Superstore in downtown East Village, ran out of bug spray last weekend.
In Edmonton, the city council voted in April to redirect the $507,000 normally spent on aerial spraying of mosquito larvicides toward creating a new strategy that relies on more natural control methods and intensified monitoring.
One such natural control method was installing houses for bats, which feed on insects.
But some Edmontonians have complained that so far little has been done to suppress the insect population.
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
