Due to hot, dry days and a lack of standing water, mosquito numbers have been extremely low.
Head of Parks and Recreation with the City of Steinbach, Russ Dyck, says that there are virtually no mosquitos out there, and larvae activity is low.
With little standing water, there are few habitats for larvae to grow.
“We've had a couple of couple of hard rains I guess, but not much in, in the big picture, relatively dry spring coming into this summer here. So yeah, not a lot of activity in terms of mosquitoes.”
Dyck says that with a team of larviciders routinely checking mosquito traps, the numbers have averaged 0- 2.5 per trap.
“We've been doing it for about 6 weeks. It’s you know from 0 to 2.5 average per trap, so there's virtually no mosquitoes out there.”
Dyck says that not only have traps been low over the past weeks, but they have also been completely empty for a few days.
“Trap counts are just about nil for a number of days. There's a zero average in trap counts for 2 days now.”
Dyck notes that over the past few years there have been low numbers, but none quite as empty as this.
“Usually, it's higher than the numbers we've seen now, but generally the last number of years have been pretty low in the Steinbach area.”
This time last year, large amounts of rain and standing water brought trap numbers from the 70s to 90s.
Numbers vary depending on the time of year and weather conditions, but 2023 reported trap counts in the 20s and 30s.
Reflecting on past years, Dyck explains that a high trap average would present as multiple hundreds. This occurs when conditions are perfect for mosquito and larvae growth.
“We haven't had that type of sustained numbers really for a number of years, occasionally a trap here or there has a higher number into the hundreds, but generally speaking it's been low.”
Dyck notes that Steinbach has never fogged for mosquitos as it is a last resort. Rather, they consider upcoming forecasts and other concerns.
With files from Kenton Dyck