Calgary put out mosquito traps a little early this year to see what the buzz was about

The City of Calgary's bug expert, Alexandra Coker, says her team put out mosquito traps earlier than usual this year following a spate of complaints from Calgarians about the pesky creatures.

Coker said they usually start collecting adult mosquitoes for daily and weekly counts at the end of May.

This year, they started counting a week or so earlier — and noted about 100 buzzing around.

Coker said it's difficult to compare their early data to previous years, but when spread out over a few weeks, the previous averages ranged from 17 to 1,000.

So it appears Calgary is not off to a bad start, just an early one.

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"Because we have that warm weather, people are just seeing adult mosquitoes out being active a little earlier than usual … we're out enjoying the warm weather, then we're noticing them more," said Coker, an integrated pest management technician with the city.

Coker said those first few mosquitoes are a mix of adults that overwintered and young hatchlings from the spring snowmelt that became active once the heat arrived.

But entomologist Ken Fry said that as quickly as they came, it appears they left, once the pooling water dried up.

"Instead of persisting for several weeks, they probably would have lived their fast life in just a couple of weeks," said Fry, an entomology instructor at Olds College.

Too dry or too smoky

Calgary dog boarder and walker Luc Catellier said mosquitoes haven't bothered him much yet.

"I find it's either been too dry or too smoky," said Catellier.

But he recalls it being quite bad last summer. He said he frequently takes his dogs for a run in Nose Hill Park.

"I remember it was like you were walking up this hill and you were eating mosquitoes the whole time," said Catellier.

Coker said the population spiked off the charts last July. At one point, they counted more than 20,000 mosquitoes in one trap, she said.

"Last year was a really bad, like a really big year for us," said Coker.

"We got a really heavy rainfall in July last year and then it got really warm all of a sudden."

Hard to predict

Fry said mosquito season is all dependent on Mother Nature.

He said they don't just need heat and moisture, they need it in the right amounts and at the right time for their populations to take off.

For example, he said, if the ground is too hard and dry when a thunderstorm blows through Calgary, then the water will often wash away rather than pool. 

"It all depends on what kinds of storms we get. Short burst, long duration, heavy downpour, light drizzle, soakers — that'll all determine whether or not we have that accumulation of water into breeding pools for those species," Fry said.

So, what can Albertans expect weather-wise this summer? 

Environment Canada's Dave Phillips said warmer than average temperatures are definitely on the horizon.

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But he said the experts have done a series of precipitation models for Alberta and each time the result was different — meaning it's anyone's guess.

Will it be a normal summer? Wetter than normal? Drier than normal?

"It could be any of them," said Phillips.

And if you think weather predictions are tough, Coker said, mosquito season predictions are even tougher.

"If they don't really know, then I can't say much better, either," Coker said. "Right now, things are dry, but it could change pretty quickly."