Tips and tricks to keep mosquitoes away this summer

Pesky mosquitoes are enough to ruin the best summer days, and during warm weather or when near boggy waters, it may feel impossible to keep them at bay.

Pesky mosquitoes are enough to ruin the best summer days, and during warm weather or when near boggy waters, it may feel impossible to keep them at bay.

From changing your environment to changing your clothes, here are some tips and tricks for defending against mosquitoes from entomologist Taz Stuart.

Check the mosquito forecast

Mosquito brand OFF! has created a website that forecasts the level of mosquito activity in Canada. To use this website, type in the location you’re looking for the forecast for and search. The results will vary from low, to medium to high, depending on the mosquito population that week.

"All across Canada there’s a model that gives an idea of [what] the mosquito population or the mosquito pressure could be when you’re going to cottage country or in your own backyard,” Stuart told CTVNews.ca in an interview on Friday. “So it’s very, very important. You can take that pre-look and it gives you a seven-day window of what mosquito populations may be like.”

Stuart said telltale indicators of where mosquito populations will land often have a lot to do with precipitation levels and heat.

“So let’s say you get two inches of rain and it’s 35-degrees (Celcius), you know there’s going to be a rapid increase in mosquito populations out there,” he said.