Buzz off ! Mosquitoes are notably pesky this yr
THUNDER BAY — Mosquitoes are tormenting campers and anybody working or mountaineering within the bush today.
It occurs yearly, however some years are worse than others, and this occurs to be certainly one of them.
The Thunder Bay District Well being Unit units traps for mosquitoes as a part of its annual surveillance program for the West Nile virus.
Final week, 3,000 of the bugs have been caught in traps, double the quantity that have been trapped a yr in the past on the identical time.
Entomologist Ken Deacon coordinates TBDHU’s vector-borne illness program.
He says climate situations may cause mosquito populations to fluctuate extensively from yr to yr.
“The mosquitoes do higher, total, when there is a cool, moist spring,” Deacon mentioned, “primarily if it is moist.”
“They lay their eggs the earlier summer time in a melancholy. When the eggs get flooded, they hatch. The mosquitoes are in a protected habitat, they develop shortly, they usually come out.”
Deacon defined that there was plenty of snow this winter, so any melancholy that wasn’t crammed in earlier years would have been crammed within the spring soften, permitting extra eggs to hatch.
What’s unhealthy information for people is nice information for quite a few predators that feast on the bugs.
These embody dragonflies, damsel flies, birds, bats and painted turtles, amongst others.
“The dragonflies actually love mosquitoes, together with in the course of the larval stage which is aquatic. They eat mosquitoes by the bucketload. And the adults are nice….they’re going to go into swarms and take out the mosquitoes,” Deacon mentioned.
He added that minnows additionally get pleasure from feasting on mosquitoes, and suggested that anybody who has a pond of their yard would profit by stocking it with minnows.
For private safety in opposition to the bugs, Deacon wears a bug shirt, out there at out of doors shops.
The shirts are woven tightly and have elements that make them mosquito-proof, he mentioned, whereas nonetheless permitting for good air movement.
