Flooding rivers and water bodies leave a lot of standing water, which only helps mosquito populations in the area to boom.
To combat that, each year the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) implements a mosquito control program. D.G Regen and Associates Ltd., a company that specializes in mosquito control, has carried out the program for many years.
“The public might see us flying around in the helicopter, they might see our staff out treating ditches, small ponds, roadside area and things like that,” said Damian Regen, president of the company.
“It’s important to know that if the public does see the helicopter out doing treatment, it’s not a liquid spray, so people need not be concerned with it going where we don’t want it.”
To destroy the larvae they use a product called Vectobac, which is a bacteria found in Israel.
“The bacteria is a naturally occurring soil borne bacteria called BTI,” he said.
“It’s not genetic engineering, it’s not a chemical pesticide. It’s actually a form of biological control.”
The bacteria are held suspended in gelatin on ground up corncob granules, that Regen said look like Grape-nuts cereal.
The mosquito larvae ingest the particles of bacteria, which stick to the larvae’s stomach and causes holes to form. Regen said that usually within minutes you can see reactions with the larvae and within 24 hours 95 per cent of the larvae are dead.
He said the main reason for the program is to reduce annoyance of mosquitoes to people in the area, because of economic benefits to the city and regional district in the way of tourists. He also says that it is for the residents to be able to enjoy the outdoors during the summer season.
Last week, they were out doing aerial application via helicopter to cover large areas but they are also in the middle of ground applications.
The RDKB program is a joint program between the City of Grand Forks and Electoral Areas D and C.
It’s been in place for some time and relies, at this stage, on controlling mosquito larvae. Regen said the focus is using the biological control on the larval stage, when they are concentrated in water bodies.
“We know where they are and relatively small quantities of the larvaecide is needed to get control,” he said.
“The biggest benefit of Vectobac is that it’s effective to mosquitoes only, doesn’t hurt fish or birds or frogs.”
He adds that because it’s not persistent in the environment it also means that it has to be reapplied. He said they try to time treatments with the water to get the biggest benefit, at times when the water is receding
The Union of British Columbia Municipalities is also going to be funding a West Nile Virus risk-reduction initiative program, which will see other areas, like storm water catch basins, treated. This will be in all areas of the RDKB, not just the ones mentioned above.
“Although West Nile has not shown up in the regional district, there has been, the last two years, cases in the adjoining Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen as well as the Fraser Valley,” he said.
Later in the season, the next faze, which is spraying a plant based product that kills the adult mosquitoes, will be implemented.