Saskatoon weather brings fewer mosquitoes — but more wasps

Hot dry weather in Saskatoon means fewer people will be reaching for the bug spray to ward off mosquitoes, according to City of Saskatoon entomologist Sydney Worthy.

The city starts tracking mosquito numbers in mid-May. So far, they're less than the 10-year average, Worthy said.

Worthy says the more standing water we see from rainfall, the more likely the mosquito population is going to increase. “It's really hard to say at this point if we're going to see a big jump in the population, but it's probably not going to be much more than last year, if at all,” she said.

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Saskatoon is also seeing an increase in wasps this spring as a result of last summer’s heat, she said.

“The queens are more likely to survive in hot weather, so they're more likely to procreate, have more young, and then there are more of them around,” she said.

Worthy says at this point of the year, wasps are less likely to be aggressive towards humans when compared to later in the summer when food supplies start to dwindle.

“As the summer goes on, there are fewer young, there are more adults, so they're more aggressive, looking for that protein and sugar sources, so that's why they'll be coming after people and their barbecues later in the summer,” she said.

Worthy says if you’re seeing wasp activity it’s best to follow them to see if they’re building nests in your area, but apart from that, it’s beneficial to leave them alone.

“They're actually very important pollinators, so keep that in mind,” she said.

“They're also really good at controlling a lot of pest species, so things like maple bugs that people are often having issues with later in the summer, wasps actually help to control those.”

She also says 2022 likely isn’t the year of the murder hornet.

“If you're seeing something that you're concerned about being a murder hornet, it's almost most definitely not,” she said.

“There's a lot of horntails out right now, a lot of soft flies are coming out and they can look very waspy but they can't actually sting you,” she said.

“There are a few wasp, bee species that might look scary, but the chances of murder hornets coming here is extremely, extremely low.”