With all the benefits summer brings, one potentially dangerous annoyance that accompanies it, it the threat of West Nile Nile Disese. 

"I've been working on West Nile in this province since it arrived in 2002," explained Phil Curry, West Nile consultant with the Ministry of Health. "And since that time, we've seen high outbreak years, and low outbreak years. The mosquito that carries it is here all the time, it's been here every year. Some years there's a lot more virus activity in those mosquitoes."

"In this year, we've seen Culex tarsalis, the mosquito that carries West Nile, we've been monitoring for two week. The mosquito is here, in low numbers in Southern Saskatchewan." 

"Typically what we see is this mosquito starts to build it's population in the latter part June and into July and that's when the West Nile risk really starts to increase."

He adds that the dry conditions have kept the numbers low much how much hot weather we receive in July will also greatly affect the numbers. 

"In our outbreak years, we had fairly warm May and June and really hot July and that really drives the amplification of the virus."

"This is a little reminiscent of 2003 when we had very few mosquitoes of any kind, but the few mosquitoes that were out there were Culex tarsalis and many of them were infected."

They typically start to see human infections during the late part of July and August however, symptoms do not usually appear until weeks after being bitten by an infected mosquito. 

Curry stated that the Ministry of Health will publish weekly reports online that will be published on Friday that will keep the public up to date on the potential risks of the disease. 

"Right now, it is low in southern Saskatchewan but we expect that to increase as we get into July."

He added that the disease transmitting mosquito appeared earlier than usual. 

"Minnesota has had their first positive mosquitoes, South Dakota has had a positive case already, so we expect to start to see the activity rise in the next few weeks. But it is all temperature dependent."

He explained that this particular mosquito is a hot weather mosquito and appears mostly in the evenings. 

"It comes out around dusk and it will bite through the night. So if you are around the campfire, just be mindful that this mosquito could be out there and take precautions."

Some things that you can do to avoid being bitten is to wear long clothes, avoid the outdoors during the evenings, and use insect repellent.