Cool, wet weather a breeding ground for mosquitoes, but officials see fewer than usual

Calgarians can expect lots of mosquitoes as the city heats up this summer, as colder temperatures have lent to perfect breeding grounds.

The city of Calgary says it’s not seeing many mosquitoes in its traps through city parks because of cooler temperatures through June, but they do expect the city to welcome the insects in droves next month when temperatures climb.

“When we look at something like last year, where we had an abnormally rainy July and then a ton of mosquitoes in August, that’s not a typical pattern,” said Alex Coker, an integrated pest management technician with the City of Calgary. “That makes it difficult to predict across the whole season.”

Coker says the 2026 mosquito season should be an average one.

“We’re not expecting there to be a ton more mosquitoes in July than we see on average,” she said. “I think we’re still going to hit that kind of average trend of getting more mosquitoes as we move into July and things start to warm up.”

The city has set up mosquito traps, including at the Inglewood bird sanctuary.

Some are catching half or a third of the mosquitoes for this time of year.

“For example, in some traps, we would get maybe 10 or 15, and in some, it would be in the hundreds,” said Coker. “I would say on average right now, we’re maybe getting less than 50 a trap.

“And when we look at previous years for this time of year, that might be closer to a hundred per trap that we would see.”

The University of Calgary and the city have partnered on a research project that discusses the health implications of mosquitoes in the city.

John Soghigian, assistant professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Calgary, has started a citizen science project that allows Calgarians to contribute to the research.

“We have a number of stations at four different parks in the city where Calgarians can pick up these little sampling kits,” he said. “And we just ask you to smash any mosquito that lands on you, and you can put it in this tube, and there’s a little piece of paper you can fill out with information about where it was captured.”

Soghigian says last year, 200 Calgarians participated, capturing 250 mosquitoes.

He says this year, one of the first mosquitoes captured by his research team was an invasive species.

“We first found that mosquito in 2022 working with the city. It was previously found in Edmonton in 2018. And that is, northern house mosquito culex pipiens,” said Soghigian.

Soghigian says West Nile virus is common in Canada, but not so much in Alberta.

Ways to protect yourself from being bitten include using bug repellent or dressing in long sleeves and pants.

“If you get bitten by a mosquito that has West Nile, for most people, they end up with no symptoms at all,” said Soghigian. “There are a small number of people that, after being infected by West Nile, they end up with flu-like symptoms and then there’s an even smaller percentage of people that end up with brain swelling and encephalitis.

“That can be quite detrimental.”

The mosquito stations are located at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Prairie Winds Park, Ralph Klein Park and Bowness Park.