Insect Control Branch activities continue

MEDIA RELEASE:

WINNIPEG April 27, 2006 - The City of Winnipeg continues to carry out its aggressive larviciding control program for the upcoming nuisance mosquito control season.

The City of Winnipeg remains committed to implementing the more environmentally-friendly Insect Control policy passed in 2005, namely:

• Decreasing the use of chemicals and increasing the use of biologicals for larviciding; and,
• Utilizing a mix of control measures to reduce the need for fogging – e.g. larviciding, biocontrols, and barrier treatments - then fogging when necessary to supplement these on-going measures.

The City of Winnipeg carries out larviciding within the entire city and approximately a 10 km radius surrounding the city. All larval development sites are tracked in a GIS database with new sites being added as they are found. There are approximately 6,000 listings in our database, some of which contain multiple treatment sites. In total, this equates to 33,000 hectares of water area that require inspection or treatment every week or less.

The weather has been cooperative since the start of the program allowing four helicopters and ground crews to make substantial progress. To date, our larviciding crews have completed the initial treatment of well over half of the current larval development sites.

The City is encouraging property owners to also help “Fight the Bite” by taking one of the following steps to eliminate standing water on their properties:
Dump It! - containers
Drain It! - eavestroughing or unused containers
Cover It! - rain water collection containers
Fill It! - low-lying areas
Treat It! - biological larvicide

Based on recent monitoring of the adult cankerworm population, the City’s Insect Control Branch also advises that in some parts of the city, such as Fort Rouge, River Heights, St. James, St. Vital and West Kildonan, a higher than normal emergence of cankerworms is anticipated. As a result, we are preparing for a cankerworm control program for boulevard trees and City parks in the next couple of weeks, if needed. If residents wish to treat trees on their property, several biological products are available in home and garden centres.

Interested individuals may acquire more information by contacting the City’s Bugline at 311 Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by visiting the City’s Insect Control Website.