Today is Tuesday, July 9, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a July total of 18.5 miles. My weight was 162.2 pounds.
QUOTE from Our Iowa Magazine: "You must have faith. A baby bird never learns to fly unless it first jumps out of the nest."
My THOUGHTS today have to do with gnats. I love to golf but gnats can sure take some joy out of the 9 holes I play. Gnats have never been as bad as they are this year. The Cedar Rapids Gazette had an article this morning about gnats. Here is what I learned.
According to Iowa State entomologist, Ken Holscher, there are 2 kinds of gnats that bother us is Iowa.
The first one he described is called the "EYE GNAT." They are called "eye gnats" because they are attracted to the lachrymal fluids that keep your eyeballs lubricated. The only good thing about them is they do not bite. But they do swarm around your head exploring your cranial orifices and they do redefine the expression "in your face." Eye gnats develop in moist soil which has been plentiful this year. And they are capable of reproducing several generation each year - so we haven't seen the end of those guys. (I don't know if I believe Professor Holscher about not biting.)
The other kind of gnat is more dangerous, especially to chickens. That gnat is called the "BUFFALO GNAT" (also called black flies.) We have seen the last of the buffalo gnat as they only reproduce once a year for 2-3 weeks in late May and early June - then they all disappear at the same time. But these little devils BITE. They attack humans around the head - they are attracted to carbon dioxide, which is more concentrated where we exhale. They tend to bite in the tender spots around eyes and ears.
These buffalo gnats can kill birds and chickens. The saliva injected by the biting female gnat can cause fatal anaphylactic shock in birds and chickens.
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