Mosquito trap counts are down in Steinbach this week.

Russ Dyck is the Head of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. During last week’s count, he notes, the average trap contained roughly 242 mosquitoes, the highest their population has been all summer. In the past seven days, however, that number has dipped back down to about 184 per trap.

Meanwhile, the province has started to test Culex tarsalis mosquitoes for the West Nile Virus to determine the potential threat level. Culex tarsalis is the species of mosquitoes most likely to transmit the virus to humans. While a few dozen of the insects have been found here in the southeast, as of today, no mosquitoes actually carrying the West Nile virus have been detected anywhere in Manitoba.