Hot, dry Yukon summer a buzzkill for mosquitoes

Yukoners are enjoying one of the best "bug free" summers on record.

There are almost no mosquitoes to be found in Yukon and parts of the Northwest Territories.

Ruth Carroll recently spent a week in her home town Fort McPherson and says she didn't get one bite.

"In Gwich'in I say no good, it means our mosquitoes are missing, they are not there," she said. "What's going on".

It's the same in Whitehorse where Curt Fediuk's mosquito control company sprays every spring, usually starting in May.

"This year we were out looking for mosquitoes on the 13th of April it was that warm, so Mother Nature is definitely changing how things are happening this year, overall it was warmer and drier," he said.

Hot dry weather kills bugs dead

Fediuk says his team is getting better at identifying mosquito habitat, but he says weather is the ultimate factor.

"The greatest natural killer of mosquitoes is warm and dry temperatures so I definitely I think the whole of western part of North America had a warm and dry summer and I think that's reflected in general over the whole part of western Canada," he said.

Fediuk says to make the best of it while you can, as mosquitoes lay their eggs each fall, and those eggs remain viable for years.

"Unfortunately there are still mosquito eggs there that were laid 20 years, 15 years, 10 years ago, so with the right conditions, a wet spring and summer you can see a rebound again."