Winds delay spraying for cankerworms, caterpillars
Half of trees targeted still to be sprayed, sunshine helps war against mosquitoes
The sunny weather has been great in the city’s fight against mosquitoes, but the wind has caused some delays in the battle against tent caterpillars and cankerworms.
“We have not had much rain, so it is working for us, but the weather is working against us when it comes to tent caterpillars,” said Russell Eirich, manager of forestry, pest control and horticulture.
“We have had an extraordinary number of windy days, which means our spray operations have been halted.”
The city has also used 2,000 kilograms of Vectobac so far in May, which treats a water area equivalent in size to 150 football fields. In 2016, the city had released double that amount by this point. The treatment, coupled with the weather, has resulted in trap averages of two mosquitoes. This is below the usual average of five mosquitoes per trap. Outside the city, there is an average of 17 mosquitoes per trap.
In terms of spraying delays, once winds reach 30 kilometresper-hour, city crews stop spraying. Even with the delay, the city is on track to spray 10,000 trees by the middle of June.
So far, the city has sprayed 4,700 trees in total. There have also been 230 calls to the city regarding tent caterpillars and cankerworms.
“We are getting the same number of calls as we do on average,” Eirich said, adding that in 2009 and 2010, the city received double the amount of calls and sprayed three times as many trees.
Eirich said tent caterpillars and cankerworms have a defined lifecycle that runs from the middle of May to about the middle of June, which is when they are the most noticeable by residents.
“We are at the halfway point of their life cycle,” Eirich said.
When dealing with pests such as tent caterpillars and cankerworms, the city has requested that residents use a product called BTK, which is found at various stores in the city.
RONA also carries a product recommended by the city called ECO, which is still in stock.