Advocates urge Edmonton city council to ban mosquito pesticide program

Edmontonians itching for the city to control mosquitoes again this year may get their wish butecology advocates say the city needs to stopspraying pesticides to control the insects.

At a meeting Monday, council's community and public services committee reviewed a report detailing how the aerial mosquito program works and the cost $507,000 a season.

Council suspended the program in the fall of 2020 with the goal of keeping the property tax increase at zero per cent.

Council reinstated the program in the spring of 2021 on aone-time basis, anticipatingwet weather and expecting that more Edmontonians would spend time outdoors due to COVID-19 restrictions.

"The overall program targets nuisance biting mosquitoes in order to increase livability for residents and visitors in the summer season, and improve enjoyment of the outdoors," the report says.

The city uses two larvicides, which it says are strictly regulated by Health Canada and recommended by the World Health Organization.

The products are created from bacteria and are effective at killing mosquito larvae but non-toxic to almost all other aquatic species, the report suggests.

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More than a dozen speakers joinedthe meeting to oppose theuse of pesticides to manage insects.

Mark Boyce, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta, said the bird population is decliningin part because of pesticides.

The larvicides are deadly to mosquitoes but also hit other aquatic insects, which are the diet for many birds, Boyce told councillors.

"This toxicity spreads throughout the ecosystem," he said. "Aerial insectivorous birds are declining precipitously in Canada."

Populations of tree swallows and barn swallows have dwindled over the last decade, he said.

Nature enhances human health, he said, and about30 per cent of Canadians considerthemselves bird watchers.

The aerial program targets temporary water bodies in open fields andin the agricultural lands surrounding the city, reducing the number of developing aquatic mosquito larvae, the report says.

It has a broad impact on the whole city by proactively reducing the numbers of mosquitoes that will migrate into the city, the report says.

Calls for a ban

Many at the meeting called for the city to ban cosmetic pesticides.

Raquel Feroe, a member of Pesticide Free Edmonton and a retired internal medicine specialist, noted that many jurisdictions have bannedthe practice.

"Edmonton is not going to be the first. Many bans precedeus," Feroe said.

There's plenty of literature and research on organic land management, she added.

"Like most doctors, I'm concerned about pesticides in human health issues, like lymphoma, but additionally, ecosystem disruption is devastating to health in so many ways, ranging from pandemics to pollinator loss."

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Mark Stumpf-Allen, a former city employee in charge of the composting programs, said he's disappointed the report didn't outline viable alternatives.

"The first downfall of the policy is that the only action it specifies is to choose the right pesticide," he told the committee. "Killing should not be this easy and the policy must be changed to make the use of pesticides more difficult or indeed impossible."

City councillors will resume discussing the mosquito-control program at a meeting in two weeks before making a decision for the season.

@natashariebe