Mosquito spraying starts as city braces for early season

They're back and soon they'll be biting.

For the past week the City of Edmonton has been spraying and treating temporary bodies of water, such as ponds, that have mosquito larvae in them thatabout to hatch.

"The first batch of mosquitoes that's likely to emerge... [is]probably going to be in a couple of weeks," said Mike Jenkins, the city's biological science technician and mosquito master.

Jenkins said the mosquitoes may emerge a little earlier this spring because of the warm weather, sometime aroundthe last week of April into early May. In previous years,Edmonton has seen the bloodsuckers come out later in May.

"They are a little farther along than they usually are at this time of year and there is a smaller window to get after them and control that population," said Jenkins.

Jenkins said helicopter spraying concentrates mainly on bodies of water surrounding the city. Ground crews look for water in ditches, industrial areas and along railway tracks to attack mosquito larvae.

The spray is actually small granules, about the size of kitty litter pellets, that are distributed from a height of 15 metres from a helicopter.