Tick season is in full swing, but mosquitos have yet to make their presence known. Let's just say when the time comes for them to realize our Manitoba winter is officially over, they'll be sure to show up!
It's interesting to note how hardy something so tiny like a mosquito can live through a Manitoba winter!
"They're hardy! They over-winter as either eggs or really early larvae stages depending on the species, and they're able to survive until conditions become favorable," says Dr. Bryan Cassone, Professor of Biology at the University of Brandon.
Dr. Cassone's passion is to research infectious disease through tick and mosquito bites.
"Globally mosquitos transmit more disease than any other animal, and ticks would be second," explains Dr. Cassone. "Here in Manitoba really the only one we need to worry about from mosquitos is West Nile virus. And there's active surveillance for it in the province which is good."
"Mosquito populations largely depends on environmental factors as well," he adds.
Climate and environmental changes play a pivotal role in shaping the distribution and abundance of mosquito populations. Temperature, precipitation, and humidity directly affect mosquito life cycles, breeding sites, and the ability to transmit pathogens.
As an example, temperature influences mosquito flight activity, host-seeking behavior, and the development of immature stages, while precipitation affects the availability of breeding sites such as standing water.
"Depending on environmental factors you'll get more or less West Nile. But it usually starts with flu-like symptoms and unfortunately in a small number of cases it can get into your brain and cause encephalitis and induce coma and so-forth."
Dr. Cassone says the other mosquito borne diseases which are similar to West Nile are the California serogroup (CSG) viruses that were first discovered and isolated in 1943 from a mosquito collected in Kern County, California.
"We don't know a lot about them here," he explains. "We think that they are fairly unreported in terms of their infection in the province, but we don't have a lot of information on this. These are a group of viruses that can cause encephalitis like West Nile does."
Prevention is the best strategy not to get a tick or mosquito transmitted disease.
There are a variety of ways to avoid the bite!
Mosquito bites and therefore West Nile and other illness are preventable. People should wear appropriate insect repellents, wear bug jackets and hats, cover up in long-sleeved shirts and pants, wear light-colored clothing and reduce the time they spend outdoors during peak mosquito biting times, which is between dusk and dawn. The use of window screens and doors, and using screened-in porches, gazeboes or similar structures when spending time outdoors are also helpful in avoiding mosquito bites.
Mosquitoes require standing water for their eggs to hatch and to complete the immature phase of their life cycle.
A mosquito can grow from egg stage to a flying adult in as little as 5 to 7 days, especially in shallow water sources where the water can warm quickly and where there are fewer predators, like dragonflies.
While most mosquito control strategies tend to focus their attention on ditches, a significant number of water sources for mosquitoes are found in small, shallow containers on personal property, such as tires, kiddie pools, clogged eaves troughs, flowerpots, buckets, tarps and liners, poorly maintained bird baths or water gardens, rain barrels. In fact, any item that can hold water for several days can become a potential egg-laying habitat for mosquitoes.
"It's dependent on the mosquito species, but the one that transmits West Nile is the mosquito that lays its eggs in standing water," says Dr. Cassone
Whether it be a mosquito bite or a tick bite, it's important to do as much as you can to avoid these bites as you don't know what that insect could potentially be transferring into your bloodstream. If you feel unwell after a bite, it's important to visit your doctor and have a blood test to detect the antibodies to that pathogen.
Manitoba doesn't automatically test for insect borne diseases other than West Nile and Lyme Disease. So, if you're feeling unwell and the blood test comes back negative, Dr. Cassone says you may have been infected with a different pathogen other than West Nile or Lyme Disease but just haven't had the correct blood test to diagnose it.
Dr. Cassone says it's important to advocate for yourself.
"Lyme Disease from a tick bite moves within you and it's unpredictable in terms of its symptoms and there are a lot of other diseases that we don't monitor for in our province. There's no active surveillance here in Manitoba and they're likely under-reported here."
As with tick bites, so it is with mosquito bites, if you're feeling unwell but yet test negative with a regular blood test, Dr. Cassone encourages Manitobans to talk to their doctors and ask for a blood test to be analyzed at a clinical microbiology lab.
"They generally have a better understanding of tick-borne pathogens and they be able to help," he says. "That's really the best we can do, unfortunately."