There is a lot to like about Grand Forks.
The pastoral landscape and scenery, the deer grazing on the side of the road (but not when they suddenly dash across the road) and there are other things to numerous to mention.
While there is much that is enjoyable about the city, there is one thing that has been an annoyance and the cause of a lot of discomfort recently – the mosquitoes.
With the Kettle and the Granby rivers proving a good breeding ground, Grand Forks is usually swarming with mosquitoes at this time of year.
I’ve been careful to stay inside and my windows have screens, preventing a swarm from entering into my place of residence, but that hasn’t stopped the “skeeters” from taking a bite out of me.
I stopped to snap a photo along North Fork Road in the evening last week, stepping out of my car for a few minutes and in that time, a mosquito managed to bite me – I managed to kill it but the damage had been done. I was out around the city last Saturday and though I was wearing long pants, mosquitoes still managed to bite me on a number of spots.
The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) has a control program in place but there always seems to be some of the insects that somehow manage to survive.
Besides the seemingly endless itching, scratching and swelling that can result from the bites, there are other health risks as well.
West Nile virus is a disease that can spread from birds (such as crows, ravens and magpies) to humans through mosquito bites and there was a positive human case in Kelowna last year, so there have been incidences of West Nile that have occurred relatively close to home.
Interior Health says that you don’t have to be tested for West Nile if you are bitten; it says that most of those that become infected don’t feel symptoms or effects; 20 per cent have “flu-like” symptoms while less than one per cent will get really sick.
For me it’s not so much about the threat of West Nile, it’s all the scratching and the anxiety I feel every time I hear that high-pitched buzzing sound in my ears.
– Karl Yu is editor of the Grand Forks Gazette