Today I worked in the Meridosia - Chambersburg area in the Illinois River bottoms. I sampled planted corn, planted soybeans, and untilled corn stalks. It is a long drive so I got a good feel for corn planted. I would say we are nearing 70% done. We have a number of customers who are finished. That gives us about 4 weeks to finish sampling corn.
The Buffalo Gnats were a minor problem in Scott County on Monday. Today they were intolerable. Two years ago we learned that DEET repellent seems to attract them, but vanilla seems to repel them. Even imitation vanilla works. They just don't seem to like the stench of it and it smells pretty good to me. It seemed to take more than usual to do the job today. I even wiped the vanilla all over the 4 wheeler, but I did get some relief. More information is here. One of my hog farmer customers says they dont like the small of hog manure either, but I prefer covering myself with vanilla instead of hog manure.
dateline: 4/22/10 Springfield, IL
ReplyDelete...yes they are back...i'm already swollen up...seem to be worse this year...mosquito net/hat, long sleeve shirt is the only relief i can find...then they still get the back of my hands...three more weeks of misery to go!