Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Driving Me Gnatty

The Gnats are not abating. Since at least Saturday, it’s been impossible (or at least very uncomfortable) to be outside late afternoon until sunset. I’m not sure how widespread the plague o’ gnats is, but I did read something on it in the Jacksonville paper yesterday where people were winding up in the hospital there after being bit. How can these things be so dense over such are large area? The SJ-R has an article on the infestation today but it fails to answer why they are so bad this year. The story quotes a 51 year-old woman who says she’s never seen anything like this here. I haven’t either. Very strange.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not that it will help you, but some places have regional control programs to control black flies (aka buffalo gnats). Here is a link to info on the biggest single program in the US:

http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/blackfly

Anonymous said...

This might help.

We have a cabin in western illinois and my brother was cutting the grass last weekend there. He said that the gnats were swarming heavily all over him. He got some vanilla extract and mixed it with water and put it in a spray bottle and doused himself with it. He said the gnats would not come near him after that. He even took his shirt off and was fine.

In reading the internet, they say that this concoction is an old wives tale and does not work. But it worked wonders for my brother. good luck