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The Heat is On! And the Bugs

The heat is on.... It is much too soon for this kind of heat. We are still in the month of May and have been in the 90's several days in a row. What happened to spring!?? We went from several days of snow in April to hot summer temperatures in May. I am beginning to dislike living here in Iowa more all the time. The forecast calls for more heat and humidity. The heat feels like the 4th of July heat, not Memorial weekend. The weather meteorologist said the record high for this date, May 27th is 91 degrees, well we shattered it!! It was 91 degrees at 8:00 in the morning. Currently as I write this, the temperature is 100 degrees and will remain that until 6PM.
Those bugs!!!!!!!! Tuesday May 22nd, the heat was in the high 80's and the bugs came out of nowhere. The little tiny flies I have heard referred to as black flies and buffalo gnats. There were swarms of them that would get in your face, ears, hair, and you couldn't get away from them. That was bad enough, but they also bite. You don't feel the bite or know until later when you have the giant welt and itch for 48 hours. It's like a mosquito bite but worse. They like your face and neck and dark colored clothing. They came out and stuck around day after day. They are out when it is daylight, then in the dusk and dawn the mosquitoes come out. Tuesday evening we had three hens die. Out of nowhere for no apparent reason. Jake found them and sadly Helen was one of them. She is the only chicken with personality. She talks to you and follows you. She is always at your feet and lets you pick her up. She is the only chicken I cared about. The next day we learned that several people in Boone county lost numerous chickens and even some cattle to the bugs. It's crazy, the cattle get toxemia from all the bites and chickens get the gnats in their throat and suffocate. Craziest thing I ever heard of.

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