In an Edmonton lab, staff holding long silver tweezers pick through piles of mosquitoes. They’re sorting to determine not only how bad the coming weeks will be for the summertime pests, but also to watch for a new species on the scene.
In 2019, the city’s pest management program first noticed something different in the mosquitos its staff were trapping. The following year, they confirmed the presence of the Culex pipiens, also known as the common house mosquito. It’s more commonly seen in Eastern Canada, where Toronto has been targeting the bug since 2003.
Known as an urban mosquito, it lays its eggs in standing water. Typically
