Big h/t to Jamie M, via email;
A few years ago the good citizens of Kanata (a suburb in Ottawa’s west end), in the name of Mother Nature, successfully petitioned city and provincial governments to put a halt to a planned development so that Blanding’s Turtles could have a swampy refuge.
Well, they’re out petitioning again. But this time their pleas have a different twist: they’re after the City of Ottawa to save them from Mother Nature …specifically, the terrible mosquito infestation in their tony suburbs.
Beauty.
Har! A couple of my relatives live in Kanata. It is not extraordinarily mosquito-infested by Ottawa standards (which is saying something). Mosquitoes generally can be controlled by oiling the breeding grounds – probably not good for the turtles.
Anyway, no skinny-dipping in Kanata! On this issue I’m entirely on the side of the turtles and the mosquitoes. We do not need more sanctimonious moonbats who quietly make full use of modern chemistry etc. and then condemn it.
DDT is the answer, now what was the question again?
Unexpectedly!
I live not too far from there. The area in question is a strip of woods and farm land just to the West and North of Kanata. The wooded area is quite swampy.
During the construction of Terry Fox Drive extension there was huge resistance from one enviornmental group after the next. Delayed the project for years, forcing commuters to use a narrow one kilometer twisty strip of road, used also by cyclists and heavy trucks.
I live in Kanata South and this is quite normal behaviour of the pompous arsewipes in Kanata North. Mike Duffy, after all, is one of their favoured sons. They could have had the swamp drained, but no. Because turtles!
These turtles are one of the few things that is stopping Ontario from building more wind farms. Save the turtles! So what if the people have to put up with a few mosquitoes.
Bring in cane toads. That will fix it.
“These turtles are one of the few things that is stopping Ontario from building more wind farms.”
Kind of tugs at my heart when I see a turtle fly into a windmill.
I grew up in Lynwood Village, a subdivision in Ottawa’s west end not far from Kanata. I remember the fogger trucks going down every street to rid us of the little bloodsuckers for a time. That was when DDT was still available. Of course, that’s a big enviro-no-no now.
I can’t quit chuckling! Schadenfreude,big time!
All I can say is what my dear old Grandmother used to say,”you made your bed, now lie in it”!
Here in Kelowna, there are very few mosquitoes,due,I believe ,to the fact that we are more decent people and rarely suffer God’s wrath,which mosquitoes surely are.
Or it could be because it’s a bloody desert and every day this week has been over 35 c, some days 39c, and mozzies have more sense than to live here,unlike us humans.
They spent millions building an bridge over a road (Hazeldean for the locals) to protect these turtles. A year after they re-opened the road I was riding my bike over the bridge and sure enough there was a crushed Blandings in the shoulder (still wished I had stopped to take a picture). This ingrate ignored the stream and the 2 under-bridge paths and tried to cross 4 lanes of a busy road.
Do it Yourself Mosquito trap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn1Uu00Ax5g
Take a 2 litre pop bottle, cut in half one third the height from top, pour two cups water, half cup sugar, teaspoon of yeast into bottom section, invert top and push into bottom section, tape seems. Yeast swims in bottom, parties on sugar water , pees out alcohol, farts out CO2, smells like your worthless hide to mosquitos, they fly into the top of the rig and down the opening to check out the source, don’t find way out. Some god awful wine with bug protein is the bonus byproduct but a bonus to be saved for a really rainy day.
Build bat boxes and place lots of them around the swamp to encourage bats to live and breed there. Also build nesting boxes for bluebirds and swallows. A home built solution. Cheap, environmentally friendly and they don’t have to rely on the government.
Looks good on them.
Har!
OK, times that recipe by 100. Do you think it might work on liberals??
You wanted a swamp, and a swamp you got.
Thoreau never mentioned the damn bugs, did he?
I did not know that. Save the turtles.
The Mosquitos were here first. Humans are interlopers on their sacred tribal lands. Go back where you came from, Kanata scum! It’s the females who bite. They are simply trying to feed so they can have children. Are Kanatans anti-woman, anti-child?
Or, they can lather up with rancid bear grease.
Is there a petition I can sign to save the Mosquitos?
“Do you think it might work on Liberals??”
Oh, I’m sure it would. Snag said it smelled like the aroma from the flowers they so like to sniff.”
As a resident of Kanata Lakes I can assure you that the moonbat arseholes who protested were in the vocal minority, as is often the case. Most of the residents here rolled their eyes at them and favoured the extension of Terry Fox (as well as the new construction which is now being done) on both sides of Terry Fox. After all, this is one of the most Conservative ridings in Ontario and easily the most Conservative riding in Ottawa, but unfortunately, we still have a few progs. Frankly, as far as parasites go, I prefer the mosquitoes, as they just want a drop of my blood instead of my money…
“Build bat boxes and place lots of them around the swamp to encourage bats to live and breed there.”
Too damn many wind turbines and bats have died off. ☺
Our “summer place” (Alberta) is surrounded by wind turbines and I’ve not seen a bat on a summer’s evening for several years!
As for the original “juxtapose” story. Oh well. I hope they bite every weenie that wanted to save the swamp. As a photographer, I love swamps, but they come with some disadvantages. That’s why they make DEET.
the law of unintended consequences strikes again.
I’ve lived in this area of Kanata for 13 years. The mosquitoes have only become awful in the past few years. I’m convinced we have an invasive species, because unlike the big grey Canadian skeeters that don’t like hot sun and only come out at dawn and dusk, these suckers are smaller, striped, and are out all day in the blazing heat and sun and they bite relentlessly. To me they look and behave like Asian Tigers, except the experts claim that species hasn’t advanced further north than New Jersey.