Council votes to fog for mosquitoes

The City of Brandon will start fogging as early as Wednesday evening, council decided on Monday.

Council members voted unanimously to start fogging despite trap counts being lower than the threshold to start based on the city’s bylaw and warnings from administration that the city’s pesticide stock is running low.

“People can’t take their kids to the park without getting eaten alive, or the splash parks,” Coun. Shawn Berry, who put forward the motion, said prior to the meeting. “They can’t go outside and work in the yard without getting eaten alive.

“Summers are so short here, and we’re just not getting to enjoy them as much as we would like to,” Berry (Ward 7) added.

The city’s parks director said crews are prepared and can start as early as Wednesday evening as residents need to be given 24 hours’ notice.

“We’re ready to go,” Bryce Wilson said Monday afternoon, before the council meeting. “We have six trucks and foggers ready to go. We have the product ready to go.”

The 24 hours’ notice gives residents time to sign up for buffer zones or for health concerns.

The city’s bylaw dictates that for fogging to take place, the adulticiding factor analysis guidelines need to be in the “high” category for two consecutive counts, the average for any daily count is more than 1,000 mosquitoes or any single trap has more than 2,000 mosquitoes.

The last eight counts have been in the medium category, and the highest daily average count was 628 mosquitoes last week.

Before the meeting, Berry told the Sun that residents should be able to enjoy the rest of the summer outside.

“It’s getting late, and we need to start doing something now because summer’s quickly wasting away on us here,” he said. “And more and more people are complaining and sending emails and calls to councillors.”

Berry said it’s time for the city to use common sense and not solely look at trap counts when people want to enjoy the hot weather.

He successfully requested that the city fog four years ago, the most recent year the city has sprayed.

He said it’s at the same point now as it was in 2022.

Berry said a better test to determine if fogging is needed is to simply stand outside and feel the mosquitoes.

He also raised a concern that both Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie have fogged this year, while Brandon hasn’t despite plenty of water after heavy rainfall last month.

Wilson said the city has received some complaints from residents.

He said the city has an operating procedure in place, but that he doesn’t necessarily disagree with Berry’s statement that the city should be proactive.

“We’re working together, not against each other. We need to do what’s best for our situation, the product that we have and obviously the citizens of Brandon.”

The city is running low on the fogging product DeltaGuard, with only enough pesticide for two applications citywide, including this newly approved round.

There is currently no alternative available, as the pesticide stopped being sold in Canada in 2023.

Crews could be forced to go out and fog again later this summer if the weather produces more mosquitoes. Wilson said it’s hard to say if that would be necessary, but said they will “probably” need to go back out in the coming weeks.

“We are running out of options for fogging. But I totally understand that people want to be outside and enjoy the weather,” he said.

Berry said despite the shortage, he and other residents don’t want to wait any longer, especially as trap counts might still not be high enough a few weeks from now.

“Let’s fog now, and we’ll do one round. If we have to do two, we have to do two … I think the time for waiting is done. I think we need to do it now,” he said in the afternoon.

At the start of the meeting, city resident James Epp told council members to consider how low the city is on the pesticide, saying “we need to be wise and careful with how we use that product.”

He said the city needs to consider health risks with using the product now, as an outbreak of West Nile virus with no pesticide left would be a concern.

Wilson clarified that if West Nile virus is a concern, the city would tap into the provincial stock and not its own, though the provincial stock is also dwindling.

City manager Dave Wardrop said during the meeting that while all preparation work for fogging has been done, the latest trap counts are less than half of the 2,000-mosquito threshold.

“It’s important to recognize that the city currently has enough inventory for only two more fogging operations prior to expending its DeltaGuard stock,” Wardrop said.

“Expending the DeltaGuard stock this late in the season while counts remain below threshold would not represent best practice.”

The city will continue to work with the province, the City of Winnipeg and Health Canada to find alternatives, he said.

During the meeting, Berry said hopefully the city can lobby the provincial government to look closer at finding a solution.

Coun. Jason Splett (Ward 8) added it’s impossible to buy mosquito repellant coils at stores now, which shows how bad the bugs are.

City crews plan to go on every city-owned street during the fogging process.

» alambert@brandonsun.com