‘Just bananas’: Sask. stores feel the bite as mosquito numbers soar

Mosquito season is buzzing across Saskatchewan this summer and retailers in the province are feeling the bite.

Saskatoon’s mosquito count for last week recorded 167 biting mosquitos per trap in the city, which is 36 times last year’s average. The 10-year average for the same week in Saskatoon showed 12 biting mosquitos per trap.

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Regina has also seen a spike in mosquitos as its monitoring program caught about 780 of the insects during its first 11 weeks of the season. Last week, the city trapped nearly 2,000 mosquitoes in a two-day span.

According to the City of Saskatoon’s website, you can expect to see an increase in mosquitos about one-to-two weeks after a rain event. Temperature can also play a role, as mosquitos develop faster in the heat.

As the surge of mosquitos multiplies in Saskatchewan, so does the demand for bug spray.

Kyle Unick with Saskatoon Co-op Home Centre on Avenue C said bug spray has been “flying off the shelves,” with its warehouse starting to run out as soon as a shipment is received.

Unick said many of the Co-ops source from one warehouse in Calgary, which has also had trouble keeping up with demand.

“It’s going nuts,” Unick said.

The shortages only last at Unick’s store for about four-to-six days, and “luckily” the warehouse hasn’t been completely out yet this season, he shared.

However, Unick said the store has had to institute a four-per-person limit for bug spray to give customers a fair chance to buy the product.

“We’ve had people buying as much as they can and then reselling it on Facebook Marketplace,” he said.

Unick said “you can’t even compare” the demand for bug spray compared to last year, noting the store is ordering three times more this season.

“Last year was just a pretty standard year for bug spray, (we would) keep 24 on hand at a time, and now we’d be lucky to even keep 60 on the shelf at a time,” he said.

It’s not just the bug spray that reflects the influx of mosquitoes in Saskatchewan this year – Unick said customers are talking about it, too.

“Everyone’s saying they’re a lot worse,” he said. “I’ve even experienced that myself even on the golf course, like it’s just bananas.”