By Tanya Cronin

Mosquito control ramps up in Kamloops

May 24, 2018 | 4:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — A group of mosquitoes is called a Scourge, and that’s exactly what we’re experiencing in Kamloops right now, by the millions. It’s that time of year, when a combination of warm temperatures, rain and flooding make for perfect conditions for mosquitoes to thrive. Control techs are doing their best to battle the growing population, by treating ponds and grasslands with a natural soluton. It helps to kill off larvae, and cut back on the spread of these annoying insects.

A quick blast, and they come to a halt. Swarms of mosquitoes are popping up everywhere, and control efforts are beefing up to stop the birth of millions of these pesky little bugs. 

“It’s been tough, there’s a lot of water seeping out of the hillsides and stuff, it’s definitely been a busy year,” says Devin Robinson, Operations Manager for BNRS.

Aerial and ground treatments are being done up and down the North and South Thompson. Trained biological control techs are doing their best to battle the growing population, by spraying a natural corn-based bacteria, meant to target just mosquitoes.  

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“It doesn’t harm other insects or bees or amphibians, it’s called BTI some people might be familiar with it, it’s spread out on the water, surface of the water, it coats the water and the mosquito larvae are surface feeders, so they ingest the bacteria and they get stomach ulcers and die.”

The Dufferin Park Marsh is just one of many areas crews are focusing their efforts, what is known to be a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Techs are sampling and treating the water, a tedius task, but one that seems to be working.

“In something like this, we find a mosquito that’s not as ferocious of a biter, so we have Culex Mosquitoes as opposed to a Dorsalis Mosquito, those Dorsalis are your ferocious biters.”

With concern for West Nile and other mosquito-born diseases, and the potential for that population of species that carry deadly viruses to emerge and multiply, control techs have wasted no time.

“Earlier in the season we’re up in the hills, Knutsford, Pritchard area, Lac Le Jeune and we’re just trying to control the snowmelt mosquitos, as the snow melts it fills up little ponds and we’re just trying to reduce those numbers.” 

With one scoop, mosquito control crews can see how many larvae are in one spot. Although it’s impossible to completely eliminate mosquitoes, it is possible to make your property unfriendly to these little blood suckers.  

“We recommend dumping out your rain barrels or putting screens on your barrels, just to remove that habitat for mosquitoes, anything like a pool, kiddie pools, or pool covers will be quite the breeding ground for mosquitoes,” says Robinson.