City kicks off annual cankerworm spraying program to protect Regina’s trees

It’s a bad day to be a cankerworm.

The City of Regina’s annual cankerworm spraying program kicked off on Monday, with more than 4,000 trees around the city included this year.

The city said it is focusing its efforts on areas with the highest insect populations and areas where trees are at the greatest risk.

The areas are decided through a combination of monitoring and inspections, said Ashley Thompson, Regina’s Manager of Parks Technical Services.

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Regina’s Cankerworm spraying will occur in the yellow areas. (City of Regina/Submitted)

She added they will be spraying in various areas around Regina.

“We have bands throughout the city, about 400 bands that we use to monitor populations in the spring and in the fall, and then we do visual inspections as well,” Thompson said.

Cankerworms feed on young leaves, which can cause significant damage or even kill trees completely, the city explained.

Thompson said elm trees are the primary target for the insects.

“Elm trees are the most affected. You will see them on Manitoba maples and fruiting trees and shrubs as well,” she said.

Russell Eirich, Regina’s Director of Parks and Services, said the spraying program will help fight against cankerworms.

“This program helps protect trees from cankerworms,” he said.

“We’re targeting areas where cankerworm numbers are highest so we can reduce damage and keep our trees in good shape.”

Thompson said this year’s unusual spring weather affected the timing of the program.

“We saw them emerge later, but then grow quite quickly,” she said. “That gives us a really small window of when we can control them because we don’t want them to be too small or too big, or the control product will not work.”

The city said its workers will be spraying the trees with BTK, “an organic product approved by health Canada, which effectively kills cankerworms but is harmless to pets, wildlife and humans.”

The work will be carried out using two specialized city trucks, said Thompson.

“We do have two large trucks, we call them our Worminators,” she said.

“They actually (have a) dual function, because we do use them to water trees as well, but they have spray guns in the back. We have a driver, two people sitting in the cab that spray the product out of the guns that are mounted on the top of the truck.”

Residents in areas near the work will receive a hand-delivered notification 48 hours before spraying begins, the city said.

The notices will advise residents to keep family members and pets away from the workers, close windows and doors and move cars off the street when possible.

Thompson said the city also uses signs and news releases to notify residents ahead of the work.

“We try to get the message out as much in advance as we can,” she said.

More details about the program can be found on the city’s website.

— with files from CJME News