2020, The Year of Pandemics, Riots, Fires and now Eye Gnats!
The year 2020 seemed to humble us all. We had to face a word wide pandemic, catastrophic fires, protests and rioting in major cities, and a troublesome shortage of toilet paper. All that craziness on the news, but for those of us that live in the rural areas we felt we were somewhat insulated from it all, and then came the Eye Gnats!
This year we have been dealing with another one of mother nature’s little tricks, an irritating little creature called the Eye Gnat. This small fly is a pest with a capital “P”. These little flies have the nasty habit of trying to drink from the exposed mucus membranes of humans and other vertebrate mammals. I know just the sound of it is disgusting, but the reality is just as bad. They swarm towards your eyes, ears, and nose to steal a drink and they don’t take no for an answer. No mater home much swatting, waiving, or cussing you do, they persist until you are driven inside to get away from them.
The Eye Gnat is a fly that breeds in loosely packed soils enriched with organic matter. So, the wonderful, organically sound, practices of incorporating natural organic matter such as cover crops or other vegetation into the soil ultimately benefits these little pests.
This is not a new pest, or problem never experienced before, but in the Central San Joaquin Valley it is unusual, and extremely unwelcome. These little monsters have plagued the warmer climates of the southern portion of the state before and ultimately sparked scientific studies of possible control methods, some achieving reductions, but seldom complete relief.
For the warmer climates it seems the best remedy was to incorporate insecticides along with the tilling of the organic matter. Yes, pesticides to the rescue again. But for us here in the Valley, possibly just a good hard freeze this year will reset the natural order and offer some needed relief.
Regarding 2020, I’m done. I’m looking forward to 2021
Bob Binger
Modern Commercial Pest Control, Inc.,
Comments