Trap counts remain low, no West Nile-carrying mosquitos found yet

Mosquito trap counts remain low in Steinbach and no mosquitos capable of carrying West Nile Virus have been detected yet. 

As we reported last week, West Nile Virus has now been detected in Manitoba this summer, however, that was in the RM of Headingly. 

Russ Dyck, the head of Steinbach's Parks and Recreation Department says Culex Tarsalis are the mosquitos that can carry West Nile Virus and they are fairly rare. 

“We haven’t had any reports of Culex Tarsalis here in Steinbach. The province does monitor that with their West Nile Virus program so they do have some of their own traps in Steinbach and we haven’t been notified of any presence of those mosquitoes in our traps so far.” 

Meanwhile, the City of Steinbach also sets up traps to monitor mosquito populations. Dyck says the results have been encouraging. 

“The numbers have been pretty stable in the last month, relatively low, we are seeing average trap counts of less than 100 throughout July here. This week, our average is 62, so that is pretty low relatively speaking.” 

For context, the city would need to average over 300 for multiple days in a row to even consider fogging.