Like many other municipalities, the city of Portage la Prairie is being forced to look into different chemical options for mosquito fogging because of a change in the marketplace.

According to Dave Green, city parks manager, the producer that manufactures malathion is no longer making the pesticide. Green says the city has enough stock of malathion to do one fogging application this season, and then other options will have to be considered. Like the city of Winnipeg, Portage appears poised to use DeltaGard 20EW for its mosquito fogging program.

"At the present time approval hasn't gone through yet, but they're anticipating it will be approved for use in mid-June," Green explains. "If that's the case, we'll be looking at getting some for the rest of our possible fogging application for this coming year."

DeltaGard is reportedly as effective as malathion but comes with less associated health risks, although research available on the product is limited. The main drawback of DeltaGard compared to malathion -- it's expected to cost about double the price.

"That's definitely going to affect our budget," Green says. "But we have no choice right now. We cannot get malathion anymore. We will be looking at DeltaGard and I'm in the process of contacting the province to get DeltaGard added into our pesticide license."

Green adds, there will be no changes to how the fogging program operates from a consumer perspective. Residents can still request a no-fogger spray zone once the new chemical begins being used.