They’re not quite the Ghostbusters but some Winnipeggers think they’re the next best thing.
Tonight, the City of Winnipeg is going to start spraying for those pesky caterpillars that like to dangle from trees all summer.
Ken Nawolski is the City of Winnipeg’s superintendent on insect control, and he says they’ve been following their hatching patterns to determine where to start spraying.
Nawolski says they use prediction models to figure out which areas are going to be hit the hardest.
“The Transcona and Fort Rouge area are going to experience higher levels of the tree pest caterpillars this year. Overall the city will probably have a moderate population but there will be some hotspots.”
Nawolski says early rainfall predictions of around 60 mm this weekend raised concerns about standing water for mosquitoes, but Nawolski says the city received about half the projected precipitation, which is good news for patio-lovers.
“We’re looking at around 20 or 30 mm so that is very favourable for us. It’s not going to create a lot of standing water plus the ground is dry. So we can accurately say that Winnipeggers will notice very few mosquitoes until we receive our next rainfall.”
Nawolski says the city only has six of the specialized vehicles and they only move at about two km/h so the spraying program is running for the next five to six weeks, weather permitting.
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