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Fri 15 Jun 2007

Winnipeg Free Press

Here come the fogging trucks

by Bartley Kives

BARRING a drastic change in the weather, Winnipeggers should be able
to wake up Sunday morning and wish their dads a Happy Fogger's Day.

Mosquito trap counts have increased to the point where the city's
Insect Control Branch has given notice that it plans to begin fogging
with malathion as early as Saturday evening.

The average trap count in the city was 58 on Wednesday, but the
numbers are expected to rise as more nuisance mosquitos emerge, city
entomologist Taz Stuart said.

Fogging will commence once one or more quadrants of the city begin to
experience trap counts over 100.

"Right now, we're sitting at an acceptable level," Stuart said on
Thursday. "We're announcing the fogging program based on the
conditions we expect to see over the next few days."

The city will not fog if the trap counts do not rise, but Stuart said
previous experience suggests that is unlikely.

Once the program begins, fogging will take place nightly between 9:30
p.m. and 6:30 a.m., except when temperatures plunge below 13 C or
winds are high.

Once the fogging starts, the Insect Control Branch will announce which
Insect Management Areas will be fogged at least eight hours before the
trucks begin to roll in those neighbourhoods, operations manager Ken
Nawolsky pledged.

The fogging is aimed at controlling the population of nuisance
mosquito species such as aedes vexans, which do not transmit disease.

But some examples of culex tarsalis, a serial biter than can carry
West Nile virus, have shown up in city traps, Stuart said.

Culex populations across southern Manitoba are higher than usual for
this time of year, but the West Nile threat remains low, the
provincial chief medical officer announced in a press release on
Thursday.

As a result, the province is not recommending adult mosquito fogging
as of yet. The decision to begin fogging in Winnipeg in the absence of
a public health threat immediately came under fire from anti-pesticide
activists.

Fort Rouge Coun. Jenny Gerbasi, who co-chairs a city council committee
that's exploring the possibility of restricting cosmetic pesticides,
said the mosquito-control policy approved by council in 2005 was
supposed to allow fogging only as a last resort.

"In practice, fogging is taking place at the earliest possible time
the rules allow," Gerbasi said.

Glenda Whiteman, a Winnipeg activist who has resorted to civil
disobedience to stop fogging trucks during previous summers, used the
words "morons" and "idiots" to describe city insect-control staff.

"If they are announcing the program in advance, in anticipation of
higher trap counts, they're not respecting the letter of the pesticide-
use permit," said Whiteman, who planned to leave the city in July to
avoid the fogging trucks.

"I thought that was plenty of time before they start poisoning people
again. It's not even the end of June!"

The city's Insect Control Branch is actually following policy to the
letter, said a spokesman for Mayor Sam Katz.

Winnipeggers begin to find mosquitos intolerable when trap counts
exceed 100, community services manager Peter Parys said.

Entomologist Stuart said malathion has been approved for use by Health
Canada. And although the pesticide does not target specific species,
the droplet size -- 12 to 20 microns -- is not large enough to affect
organisms much bigger than mosquitos, Stuart added.

Nevertheless, Winnipeggers who don't want their homes fogged can ask
the city to place their residences within a no-malathion buffer zone
(see sidebar).

About 100 homeowners have already requested buffer zones, but that
number is expected to rise above 1,200, Insect Control Branch
operations manager Ken Nawolsky said.

Historically, most of the homes protected by buffer zones are located
in the Wolseley area, he added.

If culex tarsalis populations increase dramatically, the province will
order the city to fog every street regardless of buffer zones.
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

TAKE OUR WEB POLL

Do you support the city's plan to begin mosquito fogging with
malathion?

Go to www.winnipegfreepress.com to cast your vote.

Getting out

of the fog

The city will begin malathion fogging as early as Saturday evening,
provided mosquito trap counts increase as expected.

If you don't want your home sprayed, you can request a buffer zone
around your residence. There are three ways to do this:

Online: Visit www.winnipeg.ca/bugline and fill out the online form.

By fax: Fax a request to 986-4868.

By snail mail: Write the city's Insect Control Branch at 3 Grey St.,
Winnipeg, Man., R2L 1V2.

* Allow 72 hours for processing faxed and online requests.

(c) 2007 The Winnipeg Free Press. All rights reserved.

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