Are you missing that high-pitched buzz in your ear?
Do you long for the chance to test your reflexes with a quick swat at a blood-sucking mosquito?
Didn’t think so.
In case you haven’t noticed, one of summer’s most annoying pests has been largely missing in action this year.
On any given day in Prince George, visitors to outdoor parks - Moore’s Meadow, Forests for the World, Pidherny Recreation Site, Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park - are finding them mostly devoid of mosquitoes.
It’s safe to go into the woods without bug repellent, even in Cottonwood Island Park, where the flood channels at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser Rivers usually produce thick clouds of skeeters that can drive visitors away.
For the first time in years, you can go out on your deck on a warm summer evening and not be eaten alive.
So what’s the reason? Did the dragonflies suddenly take over their turf? No - it's the weather.
“It’s been pretty dry, so that would be the most obvious explanation,” said Staffan Lindgren, a UNBC professor emeritus of forest entomology. “I don’t think that the cold snap (during winter) would have affected the populations all that much."
It has more to do with moisture and the lack of precipitation in the previous two years that has led to this summer’s depleted mosquito ranks.
"Drought will affect them because a lot of mosquito species will breed in small temporary water bodies. Even tires lying around collecting water will be a breeding source of mosquitoes," he explained. “I think also the snowpack was low last winter, so meltwater wouldn’t have been as available.”
Prince George is home to at least 29 known mosquito species, none of which spread diseases. But they do leave itchy bites that cause some people to swell up in red welts that can last for days.
Each female mosquito can produce as many as four broods per year and each brood contains between 200 and 300 eggs, which can lie dormant for months on the ground. All they need is water and the right conditions to start hatching.
“They build up pretty fast,” said Lindgren. “If you go into a spruce forest you tend to find a lot more mosquitoes than in a pine forest, just because it’s a more humid environment.”
Lindgren taught forest entomology for 21 years at UNBC and now lives in Nanaimo. During his teaching days he spent weeks with his forestry students on field trips in the forest. He knows what it’s like to have to dress from head-to-toe in bug-repellent clothing and wear mesh over his face to keep from being bitten.
Lindgren knows the terrain around Prince George intimately. He’s been through enough summers to know that with few mosquitoes around in early August we might make it through the rest of summer unscathed. But that can change in a hurry.
“The key is availability of breeding resources,” Lindgren said.
“Depending on the temperature and conditions it can take as little as days for mosquito larvae to develop, all the way up to a month. The worst of it should be over and once you get a frost or two you should be safe. They’re going to be around, depending on where you are. If you go away from water any distance it’s not so bad.”
One solution comes from the city’s pest management mosquito control program, which utilizes a third-party contractor to sample water pools from late April through June. If the larvae populations are high enough those bodies of standing water were treated with natural bacteria larvicide.
As for next year ...
“They can bounce back very quickly from low populations, so if you get the right conditions they’ll be bad,” Lindgren said.
Correction: This story has been updated with the proper spelling of Staffan Lindgren's name. We apologize for the error.
