Kanata North mosquito larvae kill to start April 21

Pesticides to kill off mosquito larvae will be sprayed in Kanata North between April 21 and Sept. 15, after residents voted in favour of paying an annual levy to fund the program in an effort to control the spread of the bugs in their neighbourhoods.

• Kanata North votes to rid ward of nuisance mosquitoes
• Kanata residents petition city overmosquito woes

GDG Environment, hired by the City of Ottawa, will make daily applications of liquidlarvicide meant to prevent mosquito larvae from hatching. The company willalso drop pellets by helicopter over the next two weeks, the city said in a news release.

The program will use naturally occurring bacteriaBti(Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis) and Bs (Bacillus Sphaericus which has "no effect on humans, birds, fish, animals or other insects, but destroys the stomachs of mosquito larvae that hatch in water," according to the City of Ottawa.

The $1.5-million, four-year contractdoes not target adult mosquitoes. The cost of the program will be borneentirely by residents, at a cost of about $20 per household annually.

KanataNorth households voted 72 per cent in favour ofthe levy during aspecialreferendum, but only18.5 per cent of the nearly 13,700 households in the area cast ballots.