The supervisor of Winkler's mosquito control program says it's quite possible we could see higher mosquito counts this summer.

Jason Bartsch says for nearly a month he's been out larviciding with continued surveillance throughout the city. He's finding there are quite a few areas this year posing a higher risk compared to last year due to there being an increase in moisture.

Bartsch says the conditions last fall and into this spring were conducive in aiding to an increase in mosquito habitats.

"We started this year with a lot of moisture in the ground already. We had so much rain in the fall so as the spring melt began, there were a lot of early hatched mosquitos that came with that. And then we had an inch of rain a few weeks ago and now we just had another inch...There are just a lot more habitats that are showing up that last year weren't really an issue, and this year there are mosquitoes that are hatching."

After the precipitation that we had this past weekend, Bartsch says he checks right away to ensure there are no larvae showing up early. He notes it usually takes 2 to 3 days for new larvae to show up after a rainfall, which is when they would larvicide.

Bartsch expects the province will be setting up its mosquito traps within the next couple of weeks. He says if their counts start getting high, the city will then set up some of its own traps to get more coverage.