The flowers have been planted, the lawns have been mowed and the patio furniture has been brought outside.
All that’s missing is the mosquitoes – and according to one local expert, they’ll be here with a vengeance very soon.
“Already the spring has been fairly wet, and that provides more breeding areas for mosquitoes,” says Jennifer Tremeer of the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory.
Tremeer predicts a mosquito season starting soon, perhaps as soon as this weekend, and featuring more of the pests than bred during a dry 2012.
Down south, it’s not the numbers that have people worried about this year’s mosquito season – it’s the size.
Giant mosquitoes, up to 20 times the size of normal mosquitoes, have been spotted in Florida.
“This thing’s like a pterodactyl in the mosquito world,” Debbie Cassyl, a biologist at the University of South Florida, told ABC News.
“It’s huge, and for me exciting. For most people, a little scary.”
The mosquitoes in Waterloo Region won’t be that big, but public health officials will be monitoring them nonetheless to ensure they get a handle on West Nile Virus and other concerns.
