Mosquito season predicted to be a bad one in Windsor-Essex

It's the peak of "nuisance mosquito" season, but if you're looking to get rid of the blood suckers on your property or your neighbourhood, you're on your own unless you live in a small Amherstburg neighbourhood.

If a site or property doesn't test positive for West Nile virus carriers, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit won't be able to help you.

"If it's a non-vector species, we will not treat because it's not a vector of West Nile virus," said Mark Ardis with GDG Environment, the company contracted by the health unit to monitor and protect against mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus.  

A Vector is a biting insect or tick, that transmits a disease or parasite from one animal or plant to another.

"We have a permit with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and they only allow us to treat vectors of West Nile virus," he said. 

Ardis said 2014 was one of the worst years on record for nuisance mosquitoes in Ontario, and with a wet spring and warmer temperatures predicted for this year, an increase of mosquitoes is expected. 

If a person is worried about the number of mosquitoes in their area, GDG Environment will come out and test the sites, but will only spray the areas which test positive for West Nile virus.

"Unfortunately, there aren't many alternatives for mosquitoes in your backyard," said said "These programs are put in place by citizens requesting to have it in place."  

The health unit launched i's annual West Nile Virus program last week, larviciding in areas where the virus is found.

The health unit is also asking people to remove pools of standing water by eliminating things from their property that could provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes such as old tires, upturned wheelbarrows and unused flower pots. 

Ardis said more than 1,000 sites in Windsor and Essex County are monitored, tested and sprayed to prevent West Nile virus.

Amherstburg launches nuisance program 

Brenda Kokko, who lives in the Fraserville neighbourhood in Amherstburg, knows how bad nuisance mosquitoes could get. 

This is the first year since she's lived in the area that she could enjoy her back yard. 

"I'm sitting on ... brand new patio furniture and this is the first year I've actually been able to sit outside," said Kokko. 

It got so bad last year, she said no one in the neighbourhood could go outdoors, day or night. The neighbouring school had "mosquito days," said Kokko, asking students to only play on the pavement and not go near the grass. 

"It seems overly exaggerated to explain that standing at the back door and looking out, mosquitoes are bouncing off the window on the door," said Kokko. "They couldn't wait to get their next feed of blood.

"It was crazy. You would come out and you'd open the door and they'd come in our home. You're going in the car, they're in the car. They were every where." 

Kokko said repellent worked, but she had to be doused in it.

"You could spray yourself, bathe in mosquito repellent. But if you didn't get repellent in your nostrils or your ears, mosquitos were trying to get wherever there wasn't mosquito repellent," she said.

Kokko went before town council three years in a row, asking for a mosquito nuisance control program. In February council approved a program for Fraserville and a two-kilometre buffer zone, conducted by Pestalto Environmental Health Services between April 1 and Sept. 30. 

"I had to just keep trying, because there was no way we were going to sell our house because of mosquitoes," she said. "We were being held prisoners in our own home." 

The nuisance program costs the town around $49,000. 

Kokko said it has made a huge difference in the neighbourhood. 

"We see kids out riding their bikes this year, people are out in their backyards, it's like a regular neighbourhood now it's not a ghost town," she said. 

Bokko hopes the program will continue in 2016.