Swarms of mosquitoes pestering Maple Ridge residents

It’s a bad year for mosquitoes in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

“They’re relentless this year. They’re just waiting for me to come out,” said Ron Paley, a local hiker and paddler who lives near the Maple Ridge Golf Course, backing onto the biting bug hatchery that is the Fraser River.

An avid photographer, Paley loves to get outdoors, and is planning a kayak trip to Hayward Lake this week – but with some trepidation. He’s wearing long sleeves and kerchief across his neck.

“You know when you paddle into a shady area, and there’s no breeze, they’re coming for you.”

On a recent hike, he watched his buddy swatting at the pests, and remarked that he looked like he was in a karate competition.

The comments by Paley and many others in social media are borne out by the man who handles mosquito control in this area.

Shaun Calver is the operations manager for Morrow Bioscience, who do nuisance mosquito control for Metro Vancouver. He said the region is seeing about three years worth of mosquito hatches this summer.

The reason is the high water on the Fraser River. Mosquitoes lay eggs on the river banks, and they lay dormant until the next year’s snow melt and high water. The water hits the eggs, and they hatch. This year’s freshet was so high, and so late, that it hatched a lot of eggs all at once. They can lay dormant for a decade, said Calver, waiting for water.

“High water on the Fraser and high mosquitoes go hand-in-hand,” he said, noting the river is at its highest flows in four years.

READ ALSO: New apartment complex coming to downtown Maple Ridge

Morrow Bioscience deals with the biting bugs by killing them in the larval stag. They spray a non-toxic, naturally occurring bacteria that kills 85-90 per cent of the larvae, he said. Shorelines are “treated” both by helicopter and by hand sprayers. Morrow workers even paddle into inaccessible areas to spray, and kill as many bugs as they can.

But there are lots of survivors, and with three years of hatches “stacked” into one, there’s still whole squadrons of the pests left to land on our legs.

“That remaining 10-15 per cent left is significant,” said Calver, and the many complaint calls to Metro indicate that the public wants to know what’s up.

Calver said these are not vector mosquitoes, and there is no concern about them causing illness.

“These are strictly nuisance mosquitoes.”

He said people who are bothered by them should avoid being outside at dawn and dusk – the worst times for the bugs. Wearing light clothing attracts them less than darker shades. And there are of course commercial repellents of varying effectiveness. But they find their prey when they exhale, because they are attracted to carbon dioxide, so there is no hiding.

Mosquitoes lengthen their life cycle by staying in the shade of trees and tall grass during the day, taking flight when it is cooler.

“The hotter the weather, the faster they die,” said Calver, adding that people should notice an improvement by early August.

READ ALSO: Death by objects falling from space could be more likely than people realize