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Saskatchewan’s wet and weird spring could bring an early buzz, but it may not mean the province is in for a mosquito-filled summer.
Dr. Sean Prager, an associate professor in environmental plant sciences at the University of Saskatchewan, said precipitation is likely more important than temperature in predicting mosquito numbers.
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“I don’t know that it’s the temperature that’s going to make the biggest difference,” Prager said. “It may actually be the rain, so precipitation often drives mosquito populations as much, or probably more in some ways than temperature.”
After weeks of snow, rain and swinging temperatures across Saskatchewan, Prager said there could be a short burst of mosquitoes in the coming weeks. But he is not convinced the province is headed for a major mosquito season.
“The long-term forecast for the next month or certainly the next few weeks doesn’t offer a ton of rain,” he said. “If it’s dry, you will not have a lot of mosquitoes, generally, even if it’s warm.”
Prager said mosquitoes need standing water to reproduce.
“Mosquitoes are aquatic in their early life cycle,” he said. “The eggs are usually laid on or near water, and then they hatch to form larvae, which are purely aquatic.”
Those larvae then pupate before emerging as adult mosquitoes. Prager said the adult females were the ones that bite.
“If you have a lot of water, you have a lot of places for them to lay eggs, so you get more eggs, which gets more larvae, which gets more adults,” he said.
Temperature still plays a role. Prager said warmer weather speeds up the mosquito life cycle, allowing more generations to emerge and overlap.
“The worst scenario for mosquitoes is typically when it’s both hot and humid and rainy,” he said.
For people trying to cut down mosquito numbers around homes, farms or acreages, Prager said the best step was simple: get rid of standing water.
“The classic answer we give is sanitation,” he said. “The more standing water you have, the more places there are for them to lay eggs.”
Prager said products containing DEET remains the most effective repellents. He said Icaridin, IR3535 and oil of lemon with eucalyptus are also proven to work.
“Basically anything else that anyone sells, there’s no evidence they actually work,” he said.
Prager said mosquitoes in Saskatchewan were mostly annoying rather than dangerous. He said West Nile virus was still the main illness people may think about locally, but the risk remained low for most residents.
“The only thing that we really worry about that we have is West Nile,” he said. “The truth is, we don’t really even have to worry about West Nile very much.”
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