People who know I am from Winnipeg cannot believe when I complain about the savage mosquitoes here in Merritt.
“But you’re from Winnipeg!” they exclaim. “The mosquitoes are the size of pelicans there!”
They’re bad there, sure, but man, they’re bad here too.
In the last few years, there has been a big push back against the City of Winnipeg “fogging” different neighbourhoods because people fear they are being exposed to toxic chemicals.
If it kills mosquitoes, they reason, it’s probably not all that great for humans to be breathing in.
Well, I am actually kind of glad Merritt doesn’t seem to be dealing with the blood-sucking, buzzing nuisances the way Winnipeg does, because that city sure has some — how shall I put it — unique pest control methods.
Let’s start with the gopher, those cute little rodents also known as the Richardson’s ground squirrel, who tunnel underground and dot the landscape with gopher holes that are just the right size and depth to trip up unwitting walkers.
Winnipeg’s administration hired a pest control company to drop poison pellets down the gopher holes so the little guys eat them and then slowly bleed to death internally.
Painful way to die though it seems, it would work — if the pellets had actually made it into the holes.
Instead, they were kind of strewn across the ground of at least one city park, which also happens to have a large off-leash dog area.
So, to no one’s surprise, a pet dog ingested some of the pellets — about a cup’s worth, according to the veterinarian who operated on the pooch — and nearly died.
Now there’s a bit of a war of words going on as to who’s to blame — the company for its supposedly shoddy work or the city for its directions to use poisonous pellets in a park known to be full of dogs.
Thankfully, the city has suspended the practice of using poison pellets on gophers for now.
However, there are also plenty of words being exchanged, even more heatedly, around goose control.
Canadian geese have taken to setting up nests near man-made retention ponds near residential areas presumably because there are virtually no predators there.
Well, no predators except cars in the constant stream of traffic on one of the city’s busiest arteries.
The problem is, the beautiful birds and their fuzzy little goslings are actually proving more of a threat to humans when they cross busy roadways.
Enter the Urban Goose Working Group, members of which go around collecting goose eggs from nests.
The eggs are first frozen and then brought to the dump.
The group is endorsed by the City of Winnipeg, Province of Manitoba, Government of Canada and the Winnipeg Airport Authority.
My first reaction to this practice was a common one — shock and disgust. It sounds barbaric to go around collecting the eggs and dumping them with refuse.
But when humans and animals live in such close quarters, things aren’t as simple as an idyllic “live and let live.”
If dumping goose eggs sounds extreme to you, consider an extraordinary court case playing out in Quebec.
A 25-year-old woman sees a family of ducks crossing a busy highway south of Montreal and stops her car in the fast lane, gets out and tries to help shoo them along.
A 50-year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter come up on the scene on a motorcycle, and as they try to avoid her stopped vehicle, they crash and are killed.
The driver faces two counts of criminal negligence causing death and up to life in prison if convicted by the jury.
Live and let live is great in theory, and it would be great if it were that simple.
But where human habitats have allowed certain species to flourish, we are duly tasked with the unpleasant reality of curbing their populations.
