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Telus rings up a big one in Kamloops Page A3
TUESDAY
Tuesday, July 3, 2012 X Volume 25 No. 53
THIS WEEK
Summertime adventures — inside a book Page A31 Thompson River Publications Partnership Ltd.
WASN’T THAT A PARTY! From a pancake breakfast to ethnic foods throughout the day, accompanied by plenty of entertainment, Riverside Park was abuzz on July 1 as thousands of Kamloopsians celebrated Canada Day. The festivities were capped by a superb fireworks display. More Canada Day photos are on pages A3 and A17. Allen Douglas/KTW
They’re coming — skeeter watch begins By Andrea Klassen STAFF REPORTER andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
Within the next 10 days, Cheryl Phippen will know whether her efforts to combat a rising hoard of post-flood mosquitos in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District have taken hold. After several weeks of heavy rains in the district that saw the South Thompson River rise to levels last seen in the 1999 flood, the owner of BWP Consulting Inc., which does the district’s mosquito-control work each year, is predicting a pest-heavy summer. “We have pretty much the same condition we did in 1999. Tons of water, lots of seepage in fields,” she said. Then, BWP treated all the larvae it could find, then waited to see if it would take effect.
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“Then, 10 days later, it just lit up with adults,” Phippen said. “I couldn’t get the calls off the answering machine. Everything was jammed. The TNRD lines were jammed. It was impossible.” This year, however, Phippen’s company has put down about triple the amount of larvacide used in 1999 and logged more than double the number of hours of helicopter time. Due to an early peak on the North Thompson — April 28, instead of mid-May — BWP has had to treat the riverbanks four times this year, instead of the usual two. “Now, we’re just waiting to see if it works,” she said. “We did our last aerial Wednesday [June 27] afternoon and we’re not really finding any more larvae anywhere, so now it’s just waiting to see how it went.”
Phippen said mosquitos tend to all show up at once. If they are coming, they’ll come en masse. But, even if the extra larvacide is effective, there will be more mosquitos in the air than usual, Phippen warned. “It’s not going to be a normal year for mosquitos. We’re going to have a worse year than normal. “But, how bad, we’re going to have to just wait.” She encouraged homeowners to do their part to fight the bugs as well. Standing water on top of pool covers needs to be pumped off or sprinkled with larvacide, she said. People should check eavestroughs for blockages and empty out water standing in containers around their yards, because “they are
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literally teeming with larvae right now.” While regular, nuisance mosquitos will be out in force this summer, Phippen said the cold, rainy weather that has accompanied flooding isn’t good for the species that tends to carry West Nile Virus. The B.C. Centre for Disease Control began monitoring for West Nile two weeks ago and, so far, the virus hasn’t turned up. However, should the weather take a turn for the better, the West Nile carriers could be an issue later this summer. “If it starts to heat up there’s certainly a lot of water out there for that species to lay eggs in, but there’s no evidence of it yet,” Phippen said. For more information or to report a mosquito concern, call the TNRD mosquito-advisory line at 250-372-5700.
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