Monarch butterfly release prompts city to cancel mosquito fogging in park

Assiniboine Park Zoo released monarch butterflies on Wednesday as part of a tag and release program that tracks their migration.

The zoo released the butterflies from the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden after 1:30 p.m.

The tagging program, now in its fifth year, will help researchers track the butterflies' migration to Mexico for the winter.

The zoo says the program is important for conservation and education.

City crews were scheduled to spray the park with malathion just hours after the butterfly release, but City of Winnipeg officials cancelled the mosquito fogging as an "extra precaution."

Fogging, aimed at killing high numbers of mosquitoes, was expected to begin at 9:30 p.m. Now, the park has been taken off the list. Officials said malathion doesn't harm monarch butterflies when an "ultralow volume application" is used.

The Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden is open from late spring to early fall and is stocked with native butterfly species and tropical species every year.