Calgarians can thank the cold winter for fewer mosquitoes this spring

Some good news could come from the long, cold winter Calgary just endured.

Because of the copious amounts of snow and cold that blanketed the city for the past few months, the number of mosquitoes buzzing around this spring could be a lot lower than usual.

Entomologist John Swann, manager of the invertebrate collection at the University of Calgary, told the Calgary Homestretch Friday he did a check earlier this week, and actually had trouble finding any larvae.

"There's one place in the city I always go to, if you're going to find mosquitoes you'll find them there, and I was there on Wednesday and there was nothing flying," he said.

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"I checked the ponds to see how things were developing and I could only find one that had mosquito larvae. It's been so cold, winter has been so long, we're probably about a month behind where we should be."

Swann said as recently as two weeks ago, there was still ice on ponds and lakes in Kananaskis Country, which also helps keep the pesky population down.

"They won't develop if there's ice because they need to come up and get oxygen at the surface of the water," he said. "If it's still frozen, you aren't going to have any larva developing. Then if it gets really warm, they start to peter out ... and you end up with virtually none in the spring."

Summer could be a different story, though.

"In a lot of cases the species are different," he said. "In many cases, the summer ones can have multiple generations if we have a nice, wet summer."

There are nearly two dozen different species of mosquito found in Alberta, and they arrive in waves.

"You have basically pulses of different species," he said. "So you'll have your spring mosquitoes, you'll have your summer mosquitoes, and really, it's a few of the species in the summer that are more of a concern to me because they are the species that can transmit West Nile. The spring ones, to me, are a real annoyance, but it isn't a case of disease transmission, per se."

Swann suggests wearing light coloured clothing with pants and long sleeves and using mosquito repellent with DEET (as directed) to avoid being bitten.

And if you apply sunscreen, Swann said to wait five to 10 minutes before applying mosquito repellent.

"Otherwise the sunscreen can pull in the DEET, so you'll have less on you," he said.