Somebody call the swat team!

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Somebody call the swat team!

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By: F.A. Krift, The Enterprise 03/23/2006

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They're called punkies, buffalo gnats, eye gnats, black flies, black

gnats or hippelates flies.

By any name, gnats are annoying.

With moist air and unseasonably warm temperatures, windows are open,

doors are cracked and gnats are everywhere. While most gnats are

harmless in Southeast Texas, they pose an immeasurable nuisance for

such a tiny insect.

" We probably have more problems than a cooler area, " said Dr. Bart

, an entomologist with Bill Pest Control. " I grew up two

hours away, and I can tell you there is a difference down here. "

Eat a piece of fruit, and the little suckers swarm.

The annoyance can be curbed, local entomologists said, by monitoring

the watering of household plants and abiding by cleanliness

standards to reduce the prevalence of fungus and decaying organic

matter that gnats feed on.

The generic term " gnat " can be applied to a wide variety of small

flies that typically measure no larger than one-eighth inch. They

can have broad wings, short or long legs and a humpbacked or flat

appearance. Some gnats are small enough that they can wiggle through

a screen door, said Dr. Warren, a Lamar University biology

professor.

Balmy weather speeds up the cold-blooded gnat's maturation rate to

about two weeks in summer months, Warren said. Add their high

reproductive rate, and a dirty trash can quickly becomes a breeding

haven for gnats to exponentially infest a kitchen. For example, one

female fruit fly can produce 200 eggs that can become full-grown

adults in two weeks, Warren said.

A small amount of decaying organic matter found in trash can corners

easily can host a gnat swarm. Like a kitchen sponge, fruit flies,

which can be identified by their red eyes, use mouth parts to suck

up the yeast growing on rotten produce.

" A banana is a freight car of food for a gnat, " Warren said.

Therefore, people need to dispose of trash before food rots and can

collect in corners below the can's liner.

To eliminate the pests, the best answer is removing the breeding

source, a difficult task in households and commercial kitchens even

with pest control help.

" Sanitation issues are a tough one, " said. " You can imagine

all the cracks and crevices in a kitchen.

" It's not easy for us. It has to be a joint operation between us and

the kitchen. ... You can do things yourself. "

The black fly, also known as the buffalo or turkey gnat, is active

right now, said. An aquatic larva that reproduces in cool

marshy areas or lakes, the black fly, unlike fungus gnats and fruit

flies, bites, attacking the hairline and eye areas.

" I can tell you from being out in the yard in my neighborhood they

have been a problem, " said.

Other gnats like fungus gnats - black, long-legged and thin-winged -

feed on moist organic matter, including potting soil in house

plants. If plants are overwatered, the dirt can become a fungus

source. Allowing the soil to dry diminishes fungus growth. Without

fungus, the gnat can't mature into an egg-laying adult.

The film and sludge from decaying matter around sewer and drain

pipes feed moth flies, also known as drain flies. Small and hairy,

they have a moth-like appearance. A drain fly lays up to 100 eggs

that hatch in 48 hours, according to a Web site devoted to pest

products.

" These are the cutest little flies, " Warren said. " But only a person

like me would think that. "

fakrift@...

(409) 833-3311, ext. 413