Constance Bay's flood cleanup has been long, tiring and itchy

It's been a few weeks since the worst of the spring floods, buthomeowners in Ottawa's Constance Bay neighbourhood are still facing long days, a mounting emotional toll, and an emergingthreat: hordes of hungry mosquitoes.

Hundreds of residents in the rural west Ottawa neighbourhood were urged to voluntarilyleave their homes at the height of the crisis.

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While the waters are now receding at the nearest measuring station, the Ottawa River is now about 70 centimetres below its record-breaking spring peak the work hasn't stoppedfor folks such as Milton Jardine.

"I can't even count the hours. I've lost track of the days. It's been pretty steady, 24 hours a day, for four or five weeks now," Jardinesaid.

"I'm just totally exhausted."

The river, Jardine said, was still close to the metre-and-a-half-tall wall protecting his property.

Even with levels declining, he was still running pumps day and night.

'Thousands and thousands of mosquitoes'

There's another factor making cleanup efforts difficult: scourges of mosquitoes.

"They're just exploding here," said Jardine.

"There's stagnant water everywhere, so I think it's just going to be horrendous."

Jardine was one of a numberof residents who told CBC News that the floodwaters have turned Constance Bay intoa primebreeding ground for the buzzing pests.

You can't be outside for more than five minutes without getting eaten alive.- Matthew Caille

At Matthew Caille and Daniel Leger's home, much of the nearby forest had morphed into swampland.

"It's awful. You can't be outside for more than five minutes without getting eaten alive," Caille said.

"Day, night, dusk, dawn, doesn't matter they're out in droves."

Diane Floyd said "thousands of thousands of mosquitoes" were making it hard to perform necessary repairs on herhome, which she built after the 2017 floods.

"I've never seen this many mosquitoes in all the years I've been here,"said Floyd, who's lived on her street for five decades.

'Hard to stay motivated'

Mosquitoes are just one of the irritantsfacing Constance Bay residents, many of whom are stuck in a "holding pattern" as they wait for waters to recede further, said the vice-president of the volunteer fundraising and organizing groupWest Carleton Disaster Relief.

Some are still struggling to get their electricity reconnected, said AngelaBernhardt, while others arefacing a seriousmould infestation.

"People are sleep deprived. It's hard to stay motivated and positive when you're going through this," she said.

Bernhardt urged homeowners to register online with the city if their homes need flood rehabilitation work, and said social services and the Red Cross were still on-hand atthe local community centre.

As for the insects, peopleshould wear appropriate clothing and slather on repellent and try to keep the right mental outlook.

"Right now, it's more about making sure people are safe and in a dry home," Bernhardt said.

"And the mosquitoes? Well, pretend that you'recamping."