Windy summer days in Winnipeg are good for kids and kites at Assiniboine Park. Not so good if you don't like bites.
"When I was floating my kite, I got a mosquito bite and I slapped it. It hurts," said Gaby Panotes
The City of Winnipeg says Assiniboine Park has the highest mosquito count at 11,000.
Like her brother, Johann Panotes doesn't like mosquitoes.
"I hate them, because they bite me,” she said.
Newcomers to Winnipeg don't like them much either. Selma Osmanovic says the bloodsuckers are worse here than in Bosnia.
"Because they're, like, bigger and they're biting more," said Osmanovic.
The city-wide average of mosquitoes found in traps Friday afternoon is 103.
Officials would like to see that count at 25 or lower, more than enough reason, the city says, to resume the mosquito fogging program. Starting in the northwest part of the city, Assiniboine Park and Kildonan Park.
Ken Nawolsky with the city's insect control department said, "The insecticide, pro-malathion will be used and all buffer zones will be respected. Crews will ensure that the spray they will be spraying is not treated within 90 meters on each side of the registered property."
To register your house and have the fogging trucks skip your yard, the city says you must register with them at least 72 hours in advance.
Right now, there are 920 buffer zones in the city, most of them in the Wolseley area. The summer of 2010 had one the highest numbers of buffer zones at 1,700.
The City of Winnipeg provided this list of mosquito spray buffer zones in 2013, organized by postal code.
2013 mosquito spray buffer zones in Winnipeg
