PESTS RETURN
Spring means insects
As the days begin to get warmer, the nice weather brings more than just people out of their homes — it also brings all kinds of insects, like ticks and tent caterpillars.
“Ticks seem to have gotten more common and more widespread in Saskatchewan during the last 10 or 15 years. People are more aware of them and see them on their pets and themselves,” says Brent Wagner, departmental assistant in parasitology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
The most common tick in Saskatchewan is the American dog tick, which doesn’t carry Lyme disease and is only rarely associated with other disease transmission.
Wagner says during the last eight years of surveillance, only 0.25 per cent of ticks were black-legged ticks, the type that transmit Lyme disease.
To protect from ticks, people are encouraged to wear long pants tucked into socks, and do a “tick check” before going inside.
To protect pets, avoid letting them run in tall grasses, and check for ticks before letting them inside.
Tent caterpillars, on the other hand, can be more difficult to avoid, as they are commonly seen throughout the city. Saskatoon has been in a forest tent caterpillar outbreak since 2015.
Jeff Boone, entomologist with the City of Saskatoon, says it’s hard to predict whether this year might be nearing the end of the outbreak.
He says an outbreak can last anywhere from three to seven years, and it’s difficult to tell how many will be out this season.
To prevent forest tent caterpillars, band trees in early spring. Once they arrive, Boone says there’s always the “hose and squish” method of getting rid of them.
Even in an outbreak, although annoying, he says forest tent caterpillars will rarely cause tree decline.