Canadians don’t usually worry about mosquitoes, ticks or other insects in early March. Yet the abnormally mild winter in the country could see some pests bug people earlier than usual in Canada, some entomologists say.
“With a warming climate, the survival over winter can improve for a number of different species, although the relationship is uncertain and a subject of much research by many,” James Tansey, provincial entomologist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture in Regina, said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca.
Alice Sinia, entomologist with pest control company Orkin Canada in Mississauga, Ont., says she expects certain pests to show up earlier than normal and even appear in larger numbers during the spring and summer.
“When the winter is very mild, large pest populations will survive,” Sinia said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca.
Sinia calls winter “Mother Nature’s natural pest control.”
“So when the winters are very cold – lots of snow – it tends to naturally control insect or pest populations, so that really increases the mortality,” Sinia explains. “That means you’re going to have … a relatively small population to start up the spring.”
Sinia says the opposite is true when winters are mild.
“Right now, because of the mild winter and warm winter days and bright sunshine, we’re already seeing many overwintering insects such as cluster flies, Box elder bugs, stink bugs, the European firebugs,” she explained.
These insects tend to go into hiding during winter, Sinia said.
“They have a specific biological clock that wakes them up during springtime so that they can go back outside and start their natural cycle,” she explained.
“So with the current temperatures we’ve been having and bright (sunny) days, it confuses the biological clock for these insects. So because of that we’ve already seen these insects coming out from their overwintering sites earlier than usual – so they’re not waiting for spring.”
The early appearance of these insects means they are eventually going to have “a very robust population” by the time spring arrives, she said.
Wasps and bees
Plants are growing and blooming early because of the mild temperature and are attracting plant-feeding insects, such as wasps and bees, as a result. Unless a heavy snowfall or cold spells occur, Sinia expects to see many insects emerge before spring starts or very early in the spring.
Ants
Pavement ants are already showing up outside, Sinia says. She says these ants tend to emerge when the weather is warmer to forage for food.
“So when it’s cold, they don’t come out that much but because it’s very warm, they tend to come out very early,” she says.
Midges
In certain parts of the country, such as in cities or near lakes, Sinia expects an uptick in midges – possibly clouds of them swarming homes or streets – because of the mild weather.
“The temperatures have really helped midges to survive,” she said. “They don’t bite but they can be a nuisance.”
Rodents
More rodents, such as mice and rats, will survive because of the mild winter, Sinia says. Rodents tend to go inside structures over the winter, but she expects their numbers to go up in early spring.
Ticks
Sinia expects ticks to likely continue increasing in numbers because of the warmer weather.
The blacklegged tick or deer tick has expanded its range over the years across Canada.
“It’s showing up in places where it’s not supposed to be. So with this mild winter, that means again the population is not controlled by nature. They’re going to be expanding their range,” Sinia said.
If more wildlife survive the winter, the ticks could spread further with their host animals and increase in numbers, she said.
Mosquitoes
If there is a lot of rain in the spring, Sinia expects it will help the mosquito population to multiply, since mosquitoes need moisture for their eggs to hatch.
“We can see a high population of mosquitoes early spring towards into the summer – that’s if we have a lot of rain during the spring,” she said.
Mosquitoes that overwinter as adults will survive the mild winter and start breeding early if rainy weather occurs, she adds.
Crop pests
Tansey says certain types of grasshoppers are among the most concerning pests in the Prairies. Due to the excellent conditions for egg laying in a relatively mild winter, he expects “elevated populations” of four species of grasshoppers in parts of those provinces. These types of grasshoppers inflicted a lot of damage to crops such as soybean, canola and wheat across the Prairies last year, he said.
“Grasshoppers really love warm conditions,” he said. “The pest species overwinter as eggs, developing as embryos in the fall. Development pauses in the winter and restarts with warm weather in the spring. Very warm weather in the spring speeds their development and leads to an early hatch.”
Spring of 2023 saw a very early emergence of damaging numbers of two-striped grasshoppers in some parts of Saskatchewan, he said.
Species kill trees
Chris MacQuarrie of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., research scientist with Natural Resources Canada and past president of the Entomological Society of Canada, says the milder weather will benefit the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid, which kills hemlock trees in old growth forests in Nova Scotia and Ontario. It will also help the spruce budworm, which targets spruce and fir trees across Canada.
These pests could cause major damage economically to Canada’s commercial forestry industry, he said.
“A lot of the success of some of these insects can be attributed to climate change,” MacQuarrie said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca, noting studies on the species are expected to be completed in the spring and summer.
In Eastern Canada, the emerald ash borer and mountain pine beetle also thrive in warmer weather. Two decades ago, the mountain pine beetle used to only be found in British Columbia, but has since spread to Alberta due in part to climate change, MacQuarrie said.
“There’s a negative impact on forests,” he said. “A lot of these insects kill trees. When that happens, the composition of forests can change and different species can grow (and) lots of dead trees can burn.”
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
