One of the things I keep hearing from public officials in the Battlefords - from the mayors, from the councils, from the business community, the tourism people, everyone - is how they strive to make the Battlefords the best place to live, to work and to play.
Well, I hate to rain on everyone's parade yet again, but here is the sad, honest, terrible truth. The Battlefords, in July of 2011, is a lousy place to live, to work, and to play, and so is all the rest of Saskatchewan. The reason is summed up by one word.
"Mosquitoes."
Mosquitoes are making Saskatchewan a lousy place to live, for everyone except themselves. It's impossible to go outside and do any gardening or yard work, especially at night. Worse, these awful beasts are even finding new and creative ways to enter peoples' homes.
This isn't a fun place to play. I was covering ladies' fastball at the Flats in the past few weeks, and then I was covering soccer up at the track in North Battleford. In both places mosquitoes were eating me alive, not to mention players and fans.
And because so many of my assignments have involved taking pictures outdoors, these mosquitoes have made this a lousy place to work, too. Just think what it must be like for people who must work outdoors all day.
The situation is so bad literally everyone is talking about how awful it is. These mosquitoes may be good business for convenience stores selling repellant, but it is not good for people living here and is no good at all for tourism.
Seriously, do you think tourists are going to think positively about Saskatchewan after being attacked by these bloodsuckers at our parks and lakes? Visitors are going to resolve never to go back because of their experience with mosquitoes.
It also impacts on events. There was the time I had the opportunity to go to the annual reenactment of the events of 1885 at Fort Battleford. That is supposed to be a highlight of the year there.
Well, the night I was there the Fort got attacked, all right - by mosquitoes. Guess who won.
I know city and town officials, and members of the provincial government, are aware of the situation. They have to be. I saw them all attacked by mosquitoes at a sod turning event for Highway 4's twinning project July 11.
Battleford mayor Chris Odishaw and Highways Minister Jim Reiter held a big media event at Alex Dillabough Centre to formally launch the twinning. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes decided to crash the party. First, these pests made their way inside the room where the speeches were taking place. Then, when we went outside for the sod turning next to Highway 4, we were basically swarmed by mosquitoes.
Reiter used liberal doses of repellant so cameras wouldn't record bugs swarming him during the interview on TV. It did not do him much good. These pests don't seem to care if people have repellant on or not.
The scene was ridiculous, and the only reason I wasn't laughing was because I was also there, getting eaten alive.
I now notice even the opposition NDP have gotten into the act, firing off a news release demanding the province reinstate mosquito control funding. These creatures are turning into an important political issue.
There is a reason mosquito numbers are so bad. The flooding produced huge areas of standing water, breeding grounds for mosquitoes. According to the City, we are dealing with the aggressive Aedes Vexan or flood water mosquito. Trapped standing water, particularly in the Battlefords River Valley, is to blame.
The City and Town have been treating standing water with VectoBac larvacide before the mosquitoes could hatch.
Whatever has been done to this point has been little help to say the least. Compounding the situation is that surrounding rural areas have even less resources to devote to controlling the mosquito population.
As Parks and Recreation Director Keith Anderson pointed out in a July 13 news release, these mosquitoes are "easily blown in from areas not treated by the City which makes it impossible to fully control."
Many are calling for the old fogging sprayers to return. The problem is municipalities have gotten out of fogging, saying it's bad for the environment. They say fogging will kill off the good insects, like dragonflies. Killing dragonflies is bad because, among other things, they like to eat mosquitoes. Well, all I will say is that the dragonflies are sure not displaying enough of an appetite right now.
Here's what I suggest for next year: the province and all the municipalities, rural and urban, need to come up with some sort of concrete, effective strategy on how to cut down on the mosquitoes. This haphazard strategy where some communities treat standing water while others don't have the resources is no way to go. There needs to be a comprehensive strategy that works.
It's time for these politicians to do more than simply tell the public to use more repellant. If they are serious about making Saskatchewan a good place to live, work and play, they must get working to rid this province of these ugly, bloodthirsty pests.
