Edmonton mosquito forecast: Looking like a great time to head outside

There is good news about a yearly annoyance in Edmonton: There have been relatively few mosquitoes so far this spring and experts are hopeful that will continue.

The city’s pest management coordinator and his team have been monitoring the mosquito population closely and are finding that slow snow melt and lack of precipitation in April have helped keep numbers low so far.

Mike Jenkins says despite some recent wetter weather, he feels hopeful about the pest forecast.

"That level of rainfall has been able to be absorbed by the dry ground and the thirsty plants and we just haven’t seen it developing into the kind of standing water habitats where water’s standing for a week or so, that allows the mosquitoes to develop," he explained to CTV News Edmonton on Friday.

"So we’ve been very lucky in that so far this year. That can change if we get additional precipitation."

Edmontonians enjoying some softball on Thursday night have also noticed a lack of the pests.

"It's been pretty easy with the mosquitoes, not too bad so far," said player Greg Fisher, adding he's not worried about more rain in the forecast. "We're Albertans, we'll survive."

"Nothing so far this year, we're good. It's been good," said Joy Switzer.

Crews have treated some areas of the city as they find mosquito larvae developing.

Earlier this year, city councillors decided to cancel aerial spraying in favour of a more natural strategy, but Jenkins says conditions were such that they probably wouldn’t have needed to spray from the sky anyway.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson