Dutch elm disease has re-emerged in the city of Regina.
The tree was found on Lincoln Drive in the city’s south end, and was beside another tree that had dutch elm last year.
City spokesperson Russell Eirich said there are warning signs to watch for.
“You’re going to see the leaves start to wilt, they’ll turn yellow, they even will turn a purple-brown, but the real trick of it is that the leaves will not fall off the tree,” Eirich said. “Generally they’ll just dry and they’ll stay on. It’ll take a hail storm to knock the leaves off.”
Eirich said there is an injection process to try to prevent more trees from getting the disease.
“It isn’t always 100% effective, but it does slow down the disease, and many times we can stop it at the single tree stage.”
Eirich said trees are replanted after one is knocked down due to dutch elm.
“Normally we would go with a linden tree or a chokecherry, or something like that, we would not want to replant the same species of tree in the same spot,” Eirich said. “Simply because of the disease that could be in the ground.”
The city of Regina has a good track record when it comes to dutch elm according to Eirich. On average, the city loses five trees a year, which is about a tenth of a percent of the trees within Regina.
Mosquito count on the rise
The mosquito situation in Regina got a bit worse over the last week according to the city.
Crews are reporting 273 mosquitoes per trap, which sits about four times the average for this time of year.
Spokesperson Russell Eirich said the good news is the West Nile virus carrying mosquitoes are hard to come by in the city.
“We only caught in total 12 Culex Tarsalis between all 12 traps, that’s like one mosquito (per trap),” Eirich said. “It’s 0.5% of the trap count.”
Eirich said the mosquito situation outside of the city is even worse.
“Comparatively speaking, out of our control zone area versus our in control zone area, the outside of control zone was 514 mosquitoes per trap,” Eirich said. “It was a big event that we saw for mosquito emergence.”
Eirich adds that the city needs residents to do their part and drain any standing water if possible to limit mosquito numbers.
