Mosquitoes at a 4-year high in Saskatoon, city entomologist says

If it feels like there are more mosquitoes this year, it’s because there are, according to the City of Saskatoon’s entomologist.

“More heat does mean that the mosquitoes develop faster, and there's still lots of water for those guys to develop in,” said Sydney Worthy, entomologist.

“Even though the heat will help to evaporate some of that water, there's still enough that there's probably going to be an increase in the mosquitoes, at least for the foreseeable future,” she said.

And the bugs are proving a real nuisance to Saskatoon residents.

“It's really, really, really bad. I got bit the other day, and it really marks up your skin. I think this year it's really bad,” said Jackie Daynos, who was out enjoying some ice cream at River Landing on Wednesday.

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The city sets up traps and measures the number of female mosquitoes they catch to determine the numbers each week.

In the last week, each trap they have is averaging 68 female mosquitoes per night. That compares to the four-year average of only 21 females per trap.

As a recent comparison, last year, each trap caught only 4.1 females per night.

It’s been a busy year for Worthy and her team.

“It creates, obviously, a lot more work for us. We are out there doing larvicide treatments, so it targets the larval stages. We don't do any adult fogging or anything like that,” Worthy said.

One of the big concerns with mosquitoes in recent years is whether they carry the West Nile Virus

“So far, the pools that have been tested by the province have been negative. So they haven't found any positive West Nile Virus in our pools in the city,” she says.

That could changes as the summer goes on. The mosquito population is expected to stay high, and could go up if the hot and humid conditions continue.

It’s recommended to keep the sunscreen out, bug repellent, handy, and wear long pants and long sleeves where possible.