Regina mosquito count 45 times last year's rate: city report

If you've got an itch on every inch of your body from an abundance of mosquitoes, you're not alone. 

The number of mosquitoes being caught by the City of Regina in its traps has increased since early June, and now averages more than 48 times higher per trap than at this time last year, according to municipal data.

The city tracks the adult mosquito population with light traps hung in different areas of Regina.

While mosquito levels rise in June and peak in July, the sudden spike has far outshot the historical averages. 

Maegan Krajewski said she's noticed an increase at the North Central Community Gardens, which she runs as the co-ordinator. 

Krajewski said she's physically felt the difference this year in contrast to past years. After hearing this year's number —an average of 293 mosquitoes per trap rather than last year's six — she laughed, saying "I anecdotally support that finding."

"When I'm out here, I usually have my bug spray here, and I've noticed … when people have popped by to volunteer or to check it out that everybody's kind of, like, swatting themselves and noticeably being eaten alive," Krajewski said. 

"I have to wear bug spray every day. Most years I don't. Maybe there will be like one day [in most years] that's particularly bad, but this year really seems like they're after you." 

In mid-June, Russell Eirich, the city's manager of open space services, said he expected what were then low numbers to rise.

"I'm sure we're going to see a really interesting spike," Eirich said. "We know that there's a lot of mosquitoes out there, and I'm sure that our counts are going to confirm that."

The city says that there were a total of 3,511 mosquitoes caught from June 28 to July 2, in comparison to 77 over that period last year.

Regina also monitors bodies of water to check for mosquito larvae and uses a bacterial agent called VectoBac — which is harmless to pets, fish, humans and other wildlife — to kill the larvae.