Mosquito fogging spray down to last 2 batches

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This article was published 12/04/2024 (557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The pesticide that the City of Brandon uses to eliminate mosquitoes through fogging is no longer available — and there are only a couple of batches left to be used this summer if necessary.

All the remaining DeltaGuard, which Wheat City crews use when the mosquitoes become a nuisance, has been bought up by the City of Winnipeg.

According to Bryce Wilson, Brandon’s manager of parks, his department was aware the supply would soon run out, but because of a budget shortfall, they couldn’t make the purchase.

“We did not have the funds in our budget for the product that they were putting as a required minimum inventory that you had to purchase. The amount that we had to buy was $102,000, and we didn’t have that in our budget last year — and they’re only making it available by the pallet,” Wilson said.

It wasn’t a surprise that Winnipeg bought the last of the stock, he added. The two cities have a good working relationship, being two of the few locations in the province that fog for mosquitoes.

“So, as far as the product, maybe there just wasn’t a business case to make it, but obviously that puts us in a tough situation,” Wilson said. “We have 440 litres on hand, which will fog the entire city twice.”

Brandon has used the product DeltaGuard 20EW since 2014 when the previously used fogging chemical malathion was declared “potentially carcinogenic” by the World Health Organization.

DeltaGuard is made by Bayer, the manufacturer of Aspirin and RoundUp brand herbicides. Health Canada has stated that it is unlikely to be carcinogenic and won’t hurt other insects, animals, plants or mammals.

“I’ve reached out to the company that offered the product, and still waiting for them to get back to me, so hopefully there’s another product that becomes available. But that may take a couple of years, so hopefully we don’t have to spray,” Wilson said.

In Winnipeg, David Wade, superintendent of the city’s insect control branch, told the Sun that when his sales representative gave him the “heads up that this would be the last production year,” he let Wilson in Brandon know they would be purchasing the last of it.

“We have enough for four rounds for (Winnipeg). So typically, two to four years’ worth of product,” said Wade. “So, we can bring in a new chemical, or choose not to do it all, but that would take … the required direction from (Winnipeg) council.”

The last time the City of Brandon fogged for mosquitoes was June 2022, and crews did so at the request of city council, even though the number of mosquitoes in city traps was low.

And there was no need to fog in 2023 at all, said Wilson.

“Last year, we weren’t even close to fogging, based on our factors of when we go out,” he said.

Mosquito fogging is triggered when the number of mosquitoes in traps falls within the “high” category for two consecutive counts, if the average number of mosquitoes in traps exceeds 1,000 or if any individual trap contains more than 2,000 mosquitoes.

At the beginning of May, city staff will place traps at five locations across the city — in tall grass or attached to a tree in short grass. They are checked every Sunday and Monday.

The insects are eliminated in another way under Brandon’s mosquito surveillance and abatement program — with larvicide, a type of insecticide that kills mosquito larvae before they can grow into adults.

Mosquitoes need standing water to complete their lifecycle, laying their eggs in still water, hatching within five to seven days. And so far, there has not been a lot of precipitation.

In May and June of 2023, Brandon had below-normal precipitation, according to climate data information from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

And for December 2023 and January and February 2024, Brandon received only 65 per cent of normal precipitation, said Natalie Hasell, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“March in Brandon was a different story. You were actually at 108 per cent of normal and from 84 years of data, that is the 28th wettest March. But considering it was quite dry before March, there’s quite a lot of recuperation that needs to be made,” Hasell said.

“There hasn’t been any precipitation for the first 10 days of April. So, while I don’t have those exact stats, I feel pretty comfortable saying that it’s been dry,” she said.

When traps are set up and checked in May, Wilson said, if the numbers of mosquitoes warrant fogging, crews will give residents 24-hour notice.

Residents who are worried about fogging can apply to the city to have a buffer zone placed around their home where the insecticide is not sprayed.

The devices used to spray the insecticide are programmed with the GPS co-ordinates of the homes with buffer zones and turn off automatically when going by.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

» X: @enviromichele