Hundreds of Winnipeggers sign up for fogging buffer zones

Mosquito fogging is underway in Winnipeg, but not everyone is happy about it.

About 650 people have registered with the City of Winnipeg to have buffer zones around their homes, meaning fogging trucks cant spray within 90 metres of those homes.

• Mosquito fogging begins Sunday night in Winnipeg

City crews are out fogging for the first time since 2010, after mosquito trap counts remained stubbornly high over the weekend and on Monday.

Winnipegs average trap count was 37 on Monday.

The citys entomologist, Taz Stuart, said trap counts in Assiniboine Park and some western areas of the city continue to be in the hundreds.

"Yesterday's counts and today's counts were down to 200. A lot of the southwest quadrant, even though it's the highest, it's still been majorly reduced," he said Monday.

"So we're continuing the program tonight along the west side of the city and North Kildonanwhere the numbers are elevated."

The fogging, which will start at about 10 p.m. Monday, is strictly to control nuisance mosquito populations. So far, the city hasn't found any of the skeeters carrying the West Nile virus.

Anyone who wanted to register for buffer zones, to keep trucks from spraying their homes, had until 3 p.m. to register.

Some residentshave been upset with the city for not giving them enough time to register their homes as buffer zones before fogging trucks were sent out over the weekend.

But Stuart said that's just the way the mosquito numbers went up.

"It'd be great if I could take back history on that one but no, we had to announce we were in an AFA high," he said, referring to the city's Adulticiding Factor Analysis level.

"If people wanted a buffer zone, you could have been applying back in March, April as well," he added.

Stuart said he expects close to 700 people to register their homes as buffer zones from mosquito fogging. About 1,600 people registered their homes as buffer zones in 2010.

The following areas were scheduled to be fogged Monday night: