Gardenbite: The life and bites of buffalo gnats | #GoodGrowing

It’s late spring, which means buffalo gnats are back and biting. This week on the Good Growing Podcast, we take a look at buffalo gnats, where they live, their lifecycle, what you can do to avoid their bites, and more!

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Episode Transcript

Ken Johnson (00:04):
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Ken
Johnson, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension, coming to you todayfrom Jacksonville, Illinois with
a gardenbite. And on this week'sGardenbite, we're gonna talk a
little bit about the dreadedbuffalo gnats. So it's that time
of year. We're in mid May here,it's time for buffalo gnats to
be arriving in our landscapes.

(00:27):
If you've spent much timeoutdoors this time of year,
there's a good chance you've hadan encounter with buffalo gnats.
And if it seems like there aremore buffalo gnats nowadays than
there were back in the day, soto speak, it's likely due to the
fact that we have cleaner bodiesof water. Since we've been
cleaning up our our waterways,the water's becoming cleaner, we
have seen an increase in thepopulation of buffalo gnats. So

(00:50):
what exactly are buffalo gnats?So these are also known as black
flies, and they belong to thefamily simuliidae.
They're small, about sixteenthto one eighth of an inch long
humpback flies. They have humps,on their back in the thorax area
that resemble the hump of abuffalo or a bison. This is how
they get their their commonnames. Both the males and the

(01:11):
females are going to feed onnectar, and other sugar sources,
like plant sap and honeydew,insect honeydew, things like
that. However, just likemosquitoes, do and ticks, the
females need to feed on blood inorder to produce eggs.
And the females are going to usetheir scissor like mouthparts to
bite, and this can cause apainful, and cause itching and

(01:34):
swelling and red welts, andallergic reactions in some
people due to the fly's saliva,again, similar to mosquitoes. In
addition to their painful biteson humans, buffalo nest can also
or also have been known to killpoultry and other birds. If
populations get really high, thetoxins from their bites can kill
the birds, and they can alsojust be so numerous that they

(01:57):
can actually suffocate the birdsthemselves. They get clogged, in
their noses and stuff, they andthey can't breathe. Buffalo nets
will also feed on other,animals, warm blooded animals as
well, so feed on the thin hairedareas of dogs and cats, horses,
like the ears, undersides,things like that.
About 12 different species ofbuffalo gnats can be found in
Illinois. Not all of them aregoing to feed on humans

(02:18):
necessarily though. Some of themmay only feed on a few types of
animals. However, there are nospecies of buffalo gnats that
feed exclusively on humans.They'll feed on other animals,
as well.
So when it comes to the lifecycle of buffalo gnats, after
mating and feeding on a bloodmeal, the females are going to
begin to lay eggs. A lot oftimes this is going to be in or

(02:38):
near running water. Some otherspecies will also attach their
eggs to wet surfaces, like theblades of leaves or on debris in
the water. Depending on thespecies, they're capable of
laying between a 5,500 eggs overthe lifetime, each female
buffalo gnat. Many species ofbuffalo gnats are going to
overwinter as eggs, but thereare some that will overwinter,

(03:00):
as larvae in the water.
After hatching, the spindleshaped larvae will attach
themselves to rocks or othersubmerged items, using silk that
they will produce. And thelarvae are going to need flowing
water in part because they arefilter feeders. So they're gonna
use these fan like structurescalled labral fans. These are on
their head and they're gonna usethem to capture food, things

(03:21):
like algae, bacteria, pollen,other organic matter that may
be, in the water. Eventually,well, when the time comes, the
larvae will spin a cocoonunderwater and they will pupate.
And then when the adults areready to emerge, they will rise
to the surface on a bubble ofair, and most the adults of most
species are going to be activefrom mid May to July, again,

(03:42):
depending on the species andwhere you are at, in the country
or in the state. Adult buffalonests are capable of flying 10
or more miles in search of ablood mill, but they're going to
be most commonly encounteredclose to the water sources that
they are developing in. Usuallyfly about half a mile or so.
Buffalo gnats are going to beattracted to carbon dioxide,
exhaled by humans, otheranimals, their prey, as well as

(04:06):
sweat, and dark moving objects.Again, similar to mosquitoes and
ticks do, but they're allfeeding on warm blooded
vertebrates.
Buffalo gnats are going to bemost active on calm days,
usually just after sunrise andjust before sunset, so those
dusk and dawn time frames there.Individual adults can live for a
couple for several weeks, butfortunately, once water

(04:27):
temperatures start to reach themid seventies, eggs stop
hatching, adult and the adultpopulations will begin to
decline, again, as that weatherstarts warming up quite a bit.
The number of generations thatbuffalo gnats will have in a
year is again gonna depend onthe species. Some may only have
one generation, others may havemultiple generations per year

(04:47):
though. So when it comes to,avoiding buffalo gnats and avoid
being biting, there's there'sseveral different things we can
do.
One thing we can't really dothough is try to control buffalo
net populations themselves.Because, again, these are
developing in flowing water orwater and and flowing water in
addition to that, And there arevery strict regulations about
applying pesticides to movingbodies of water. So controlling

(05:10):
the larvae of buffalo gnats isgoing to be impractical. Any
pesticides that were going to beused are gonna have negative
effects on other aquatic life,other insects, fish, things like
that. And this would need to bedone as an an area wide,
management program.
You couldn't just do a sectionof a stream or section of of a
river or something like that.You need to do the whole area to

(05:30):
really get good control. So inaddition to not really being
legal, it's also impractical totry to manage the larvae, of
buffalo gnats. Fogging areas forbuffalo gnats isn't going to
provide effective long termmanagement either. Just like
mosquitoes, they willeventually, move back into the
air.
So it's more of a temporary fixthan anything else. So instead

(05:51):
of trying to get rid of thebuffalo gnats, we should try to
prevent being bitten by them. Sothere's, again, several ways we
can do this. We wanna avoidinfested areas, especially when
they're most active. Again, thisis going to be early in the
morning or at dusk.
So try to prevent areas nearwater where buffalo gnats are
present. We're just go try toavoid going outdoors at that
time. Like mosquitoes, buffalonets are not particularly strong

(06:14):
flyers. So if you're using ifyou're gonna be outdoors, using
fans, can help reduce bites fromthem as well. We also wanna try
to cover, our skin as much aspossible to reduce reduce the
number of bites that we may get.
So wearing long pants, longsleeve shirts. If you have the
option or the ability to,wearing clothing that has
zippers instead of buttons,zippers are gonna be better than

(06:35):
buttons at keeping buffalo netsfrom getting inside of clothing.
And again, since they areattracted to dark objects, try
to wear light colored clothing.And if you live in an area where
there where buffalo gnats areparticularly prevalent,
populations are really high,wearing head nets may be helpful
as well. So again, lot of thingswe're doing for mosquitoes and
ticks are also going to beeffective for avoiding being

(06:55):
bitten by buffalo gnats.
Also, using repellents, is goingto be effective as well. So
things containing DEET can beeffective, at repelling buffalo
gnats as well. And many peoplehave reported, that vanilla can
be fairly effective as arepellent as well. There hasn't
been a whole lot of research onthis, but anecdotally, many
people say that vanilla can be,an effective scent at repelling

(07:17):
them as well. But fortunately,unlike mosquitoes, buffalo gnats
aren't going to bite throughclothing, so only exposed skin
is is going to be potentiallyattacked by them.
Well, that's all I've got foryou for this week's Garden
Bites. Thanks for listening.We'll be back next week with
another good growing podcastepisode. Listeners, thank you
for doing what you do best andthat is listening or if you're

(07:39):
watching us on YouTube watching.And as always, keep on growing.