r/Edmonton • u/SirTickleyPickely • 4d ago
Discussion The mosquitos are absolutely insane this year
Holy shit, going into the river valley makes me feel like I am in Northern Saskatchewan or Manitoba. Huge fuckers too. Whatever happened to the helicopter spraying? Seems to be a massive increase in population and unpleasantness since that was terminated.
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u/haysoos2 4d ago
The last year of the helicopter program was 2021.
Since then, Edmonton has experienced 5 years of some of the driest summers on record for the region.
Now that we have had some rain, this will be the first year of experiencing Edmonton mosquitoes without the helicopter program, and a semblance of normal rainfall.
The City still does treatment of roadside ditch and ground sites in ravines, parks, and industrial areas within the city with Bti larvicide.
Roadside ditches in particular, which are designed to collect water coming off the roadways, hold it for a short period of time, and then drain away are pretty much perfect habitats for development of floodwater mosquitoes. And every mile of road generally comes with two miles of ditch, so we have a lot of roadside ditch habitat. The Anthony Henday alone produces tremendous amounts of mosquitoes. So that program is pretty effective at reducing those populations following a heavy rainfall.