BREAKING Another suspect arrested in Toronto Pearson airport gold heist: police
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Mosquitoes.
They're thirsty bloodsuckers that annoy those who cross into nature, feasting on their salty life source while leaving behind red, itchy bumps.
And this year across Canada, it seems the pesky insects are worse than ever.
Those who’ve wondered about an increase in mosquitoes may be right, according to Laura Ferguson, assistant professor of biology at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.
"It's definitely been a trend to some extent that people are noticing anecdotally," she told CTVNews.ca in an interview on Friday. "New Brunswick, in particular, over the last couple of years, has noticed big bursts in mosquito populations, especially in this mid- to late spring."
Why mosquitoes may be worse than normal in some areas has more than one answer.
Ferguson works with a team to study mosquitoes, understand the different species and track their abundance across North America.
"It's for a few different reasons why we're seeing more mosquitoes than we may have at least in the past couple of decades or so," she said.
The first contributing reason is that there are more species of mosquitoes than in years past.
Different species travel with human goods across the world. They then breed in their new homes, creating populations of specific types of mosquitoes where they'd never existed before.
"Here in Nova Scotia for instance, we didn't have a (species) a couple of decades ago — it came over from Japan in tire, we think — and it's just exploded across the province and you can find it anywhere now," Ferguson said.
Additionally, Ferguson said, warmer winters caused by climate change allow mosquitoes that would die off in the winter to survive and continue reproducing.
Along with being able to survive the milder weather, some types of mosquitoes are able to reproducer faster in warm temperatures because of the type of insect they are. Ferguson says mosquitoes are ectotherms, meaning their regulation of body temperature depends on external sources like the sun.
Precipitation also plays a factor in how well mosquitoes can survive, because they lay eggs in stagnant water.
Ferguson said if it's a particularly dry spring there may be fewer mosquitoes around, depending on the species. Others lay eggs in the fall, so there would only be a large drop in mosquitoes if the previous year was dry.
Another theory that needs more research, Ferguson said, is the waning effects of the chemical Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), which was used in the past to control insects in crops, but was phased out in the 1970s due to its harm on other species.
Despite this, the chemical can still be found in water and is circulating in ecosystems.
"Those kinds of holdover effects from these really persistent insecticides may have also suppressed mosquito populations for a few decades," she said. "And now we're experiencing a bit of this rebound of these populations as these insecticides and their effects start to wear away in the environment."
Unfortunately, all these factors lead to an increase in mosquitoes, a problem without fast solutions.
"I think for the most part, what we need to do is just figure out the ways to protect ourselves from contact with mosquitoes because they are a part of the ecosystem," Ferguson said.
"On a regular basis it's going to be things like hanging out in a screened porch instead of right outside, making sure that you dump standing water anywhere in your yard."
Using repellents like DEET and some natural oils can help when out in the woods, Ferguson said.
"Wear light colours, long sleeves, those kinds of things to reduce the area of your body that's exposed to potential bites," Ferguson said. "That kind of thing is sort of our best bet of that trying to sort of prevent our contact with them as much as possible."
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Hailey and Justin Bieber are going to be parents. The couple announced the news on Thursday on Instagram, both sharing a video that showcases Hailey Bieber's growing belly.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would not legislate on, nor use the notwithstanding clause, on abortion, his office says, as anti-abortion protesters gather on Parliament Hill.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
Miss Teen USA resigned Wednesday, sending further shock waves through the pageant community just days after Miss USA said she would relinquish her crown.
For some immigrants, their dreams of permanently settling in Canada have taken an unexpected twist.
A video circulating on social media of a young girl being hit by a bike has some calling for better safety and more caution when designing bike lanes in the city. The video shows a four-year-old girl crossing Jeanne-Mance Street in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood to get on a school bus stopped on the opposite side of the street
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.