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NUNAVUT
Bzzzzt.... Some Nunavummiut are talking about how bad the mosquitoes are this summer, with residents in the Kitikmeot especially saying there are more, and bigger, mosquitoes than usual.

Tobi Kingagolek uses her "exterminator" to swat mosquitoes out on the land around Cambridge Bay. - photo courtesy of Vicki Aitaok

Joseph Quqqiaq in Taloyoak said he thinks this has been the worst year for mosquitoes in the past 10 years.

"In previous years, we would have only maybe two weeks or one week of mosquitoes and then they usually go away. But this time, they've been here for a while now."

He said the bugs arrived sometime in June and are bigger than normal, and bothersome.

"That's why I have been avoiding going out on the land," said Quqqiaq.

Instead, he's been staying close to the shoreline where bugs are fewer and where it's cooler.

The landscape is changing, he added, as some rivers are getting wider and some lakes are drying up. He said he thinks climate change might also be the cause of all those extra mosquitoes this summer.

"To be quite honest with you, I think global warming might be the good part of it," said Quqqiaq.

But it's nothing more than usual in Arctic Bay, said Clare Kines, who added mosquitoes this summer are nothing compared to what he has seen in the Northwest Territories.

"I came to Arctic Bay from Fort Providence and the Deh Cho in the Northwest Territories where the mosquitoes far outstrip anything else that's out there. I hardly notice mosquitoes here at all," he said. "I haven't noticed anything more than normal here."

Meanwhile in Cambridge Bay, "There are black swarms everywhere," reports Vicki Aitoak.

"When you're on the land, it's almost impossible. You can't go far because there are so many out on the tundra. They're constant. They're small (so) they just get you before you even know what's happening. There's a lot of them and they're small and they're hungry."

A lot more rain and water due to the melting snow this spring might be the cause, she added. And she may be right. What drives mosquito populations from year to year is the weather, said Terry Wheeler, an entomology professor with McGill University. He is part of the northern bio-diversity program, which looks at insects, mosquitoes and spider populations in 12 sites across the North, including Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk and Lake Hazen on Ellesmere Island.

"The thing about mosquitoes is their populations actually can go up and down quite a lot from year to year. You have good years and you have bad years," he said. "If there is a very good summer for mosquitoes, that means there are going to be more of them, and they are going to lay more eggs. That will probably mean if there is another good summer the next year, there will be even more."

A bigger snow pack, a wet spring, more runoff are also factors in increasing mosquito numbers, as their larvae develop in ponds, he added.

Joanni Sallerina, who has lived in Gjoa Haven for almost 40 years, said more puddles this spring might explain why the community has more mosquitoes.

"We have more mosquitoes here than we normally have in the past," he said. "Every year, when they come, they seem to be getting bigger. I don't know if they are actually getting bigger or (we're) just thinking they're just bigger." Wheeler said bigger mosquitoes could be due to lots of food being available for the larvae. "If they are in a really good pond and they get lots of food when they larvae, they'll get bigger. That can actually mean the adult mosquitoes are bigger too," said Wheeler.

Bigger mosquitoes could also mean new species are moving north as temperatures increase because of climate change, he added. Climate change can also mean more snow, more runoff, more rain and a longer summer, giving the mosquitoes more time to develop and go through their life cycle, explained Wheeler. He added this might mean more mosquitoes.

"I think the overall pattern we are going to see is potentially more mosquitoes in some of the communities as the climate warms," he said.

In the meantime, Aitoak is hoping other flying insects will bring some relief to Cambridge Bay. "We need dragonflies. They eat mosquitoes," said Aitaok.

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