Cheryl Phippen of BWP Consulting checking out the mosquito population in a Schiedam Flats grassland pond. (Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

MOSQUITO SEASON

Spring mosquito control underway in rural Kamloops

May 5, 2020 | 5:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s early in the season for the usual influx of mosquitoes in urban areas, but mosquito control is well underway in the Kamloops-area grasslands.

In the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, there are more than 450 mosquito habitats that BWP Consultants visits each year. Owner Cheryl Phippen says this year, higher pond levels have resulted in strong mosquito populations in some of the rural areas around Kamloops.

“We did do one aerial treatment yesterday, in Pinantan and Schiedam Flats, and it seems quite successful. Some of the larvae are dead and we expect a few more to die, and then we’ll start looking forward to the river starting to flood in the coming weeks.”

According to Phippen, there are about 35 different species throughout the TNRD, and they have different tastes in habitat, and who they’ll seek out for a bite.

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Some prefer large mammals like cows and horses, while others — like those that arrive with river floodwaters — opt for a mostly human diet.

“Most of our floodwater mosquitoes — although they’re a terrible, horrible nuisance — typically they bite once, and then they die.”

With late spring floods on the way, Phippen says the third week of May until the third week of June is expected to be the worst period for aggressive mosquitoes.

“If we get this kind of weather like we’re having now — warm during the day and cool at night — it kind of slows that snow melt. So maybe we won’t have as much water, and maybe we’ll have less mosquitoes,” she says. “I’ve given up predicting over the years. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

by Dylana Kneeshaw

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Spring mosquito control underway in rural Kamloops

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