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Winnipeg, MB - Today the City of Winnipeg's Insect Control Branch attended Forest Park Elementary School to deliver an educational presentation about bugs and to invite students and their parents to join the fight against mosquitoes this season as honorary Agents of S.W.A.T. (Standing Water Action Team). Students were presented with Winnipeg’s latest weapon in the fight against mosquitoes - an action oriented, educational comic book that examines the mosquito’s life cycle and explains how to become an agent of S.W.A.T. to reduce mosquitoes in your neighborhood.
“We want to educate and recruit kids to join the Agents of S.W.A.T. so they learn at an early age that by draining, dumping or covering standing water in their yards from May until August, they can significantly reduce mosquitoes,” said Ken Nawolsky, superintendent of insect control. “Once someone gets in the habit of eliminating standing water, that positive behavior is likely to continue throughout their life.”
Standing water is the ideal environment for the development of Winnipeg’s mosquito larvae and fifty per cent of Winnipeg’s mosquitos come from standing water on private property. A single birdbath filled with standing water can generate as many as 1,000 adult nuisance mosquitoes.
Last year the City launched its educational campaign called the Agents of S.W.A.T. (Standing Water Action Team) as a call to action for all Winnipeggers to actively drain, dump or cover water-filled containers such as buckets, rain barrels, birdbaths and eavestroughs in the springtime, and after a rainfall to reduce mosquito populations.
“As an agent of S.W.A.T., your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to fight mosquitoes before they hatch,” said Nawolsky. “If Winnipeggers do their part in eliminating standing water, all of Winnipeg will benefit by having fewer mosquitoes.”
For more information and to download a copy of the comic book, please visit winnipeg.ca/agentsofswat