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G8 leaders will brave Canada’s bugs

First, we sent them to the Arctic in the middle of winter. Now we’re luring them to cottage country in bug season.

OTTAWA — First, we sent them to the Arctic in the middle of winter. Now we’re luring them to cottage country in bug season.

Canada is highlighting the country’s eccentricities as it hosts the G8 this year, holding the finance ministers’ meeting in Iqaluit in February and next the leaders’ summit in Huntsville, Ont., in June.

The finance ministers lucked out and hit a patch of relatively balmy weather of about -10. But the leaders in Huntsville may not escape nature’s challenges so easily.

Normally, at the end of June in the area around Algonquin Park, the spring’s crop of black flies is still hanging around, and the mosquitoes are out in full force.

Even though spring came early this year, there’s no guarantee the bug population will let up, since their breeding depends on conditions in the coming months, says Douglas Currie, curator of entomology at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Black flies usually peak in mid-June and only begin to taper off by the end of the month. The mosquito population, on the other hand, rejuvenates itself every couple of weeks, and their quantities depend on recent rainfall. Usually, they thrive at the end of June.

“I don’t think it’s going to be hell on earth, by any stretch. But there are going to be mosquitoes and black flies around,” Currie said.

The G8 leaders will spend a day and a half at the Deerhurst Resort, which bills itself as “minutes from Algonquin Provincial Park, 780 acres of lakeside wilderness.”

But while the Prime Minister himself has reportedly expressed concerns about the bug population, the resort says it has no plans to take any extra steps to shoo away the bugs.

There’s simply no need, says Deerhurst spokeswoman Anne White.

Just to make sure the photo ops aren’t interrupted by a mosquito landing on a summit leader’s nose, Deerhurst management will, as usual, place three or four “mosquito magnet” traps in strategic spots around the acreage, she said.

“These help in dusk hours where bugs everywhere peak.”

Mosquito magnets emit carbon dioxide, attracting mosquitoes into a trap where they then wither up and die.

Last spring, the resort did experiment with an environmentally friendly garlic based spray around three areas popular for outdoor dining, she added.

But the motivation was mainly to give a local company a chance, and not because the bugs were out of control.

The results were inconclusive, and the trial has come to an end, White said.

The RCMP, however, is not leaving anything to chance. They’ve issued a notice of their plans to buy 70 cordless mosquito traps before June 1. Each trap has to be propane-operated, and attract all mosquitoes in a one-acre area.

That’s probably a good idea, especially if the Mounties are responsible for security in the area surrounding the summit meeting, said Currie.

“The numbers of insects in (nearby) Algonquin Park are staggering,” he warned.

But Rejean Bergevin argues the Mounties are throwing their money to the wind. Bergevin markets biological insecticides for GDG Environnement Ltd., and says his spray would be far more effective than mosquito traps at killing off mosquitoes and black flies over wide areas.

Currie says there are pros and cons to both biological sprays and mosquito traps.

But no one should be considering a bug zapper for the summit, he said. The zappers are much cheaper than the carbon-dioxide-emitting traps, but they’re not very effective, Currie said, because they attract the kind of bugs people need to have around to eat mosquitoes.

Rather than worry about a few bites on their ankles, Currie has a simple suggestion to the G8 leaders coming to Huntsville: tuck your pants in their socks, and make peace with the beautiful Canadian wild.

“My view is, suck it up and enjoy it.”