Please, Please Just Go Away

Sand gnats.  They go by several names:  No-see ums, punkies, blood-sucking vampires, sand fleas, etc. 

I don’t care what you call them.  They are simply terrible, and I’m ready for them to go.

I had a shoot today at Vaden Chevrolet in Savannah, to announce the winner for the first drawing of “Win My Ride,“ and the sand gnats were just terrible.  I even feel itchy now, and the shoot was more than an hour ago.

Well, a sand gnat is only 1/10th of an inch in size, but its sting can be felt for hours.  Welts and lesions from the bite can last for days. 

They prefer to swarm in packs of hundreds, appearing most often in the morning and evening hours.  Twice a year, the winged pests breed in salt marshes along the coast.  And due to their rapid mating cycle, insecticides are almost useless.

But here’s some good news…the weather can provide a great deal of gnat control.  Only a modest wind can scatter a swarm of the pests, and they can only accumulate when the temperature hovers near 70 degrees.

Sand gnats can’t tolerate the summer heat or winter cold.  So basically, they become a real nuisance for about six weeks during the spring and fall.

So…once it gets even cooler, these little buggers will finally leave us alone.

Until then, try to protect yourself.  Gnats are attracted to the carbon dioxide we humans exhale in our breath.  You can try various bug sprays, but I honestly haven’t found one that completely works.

Scientists are trying their best to figure out something too.  Researchers have been searching since 1974 for a better form of gnat control.  Right now, they’re looking at ways to lure the bugs to an area where they could be captured by high-tech trapping equipment.