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Pesky Gnats Damage ,
Says University Scientists
“Varmint” Is
Hard To Kill
Gnats. Ugh! If
you’ve spent any time in South
Georgia in the summer, you’re
probably a past master at flick
ing the tiny, swarming pests
away from your face.
But a University of Georgia
College of Agriculture Experi
ment Stations scientist who
has been researching eye gnats
for three years believes they
may have a more serious effect
than human irritation—they
may be damaging agricultural
crops as well,
I)r. Edward L. Snoddy,
assistant professor of entomol
ogy at the Coastal Plain Station
and the leader of U. Ga. eye
gnat study, has found evidence
that may prove Hippelales
pusio, the “Coastal Plain eye
gnat.” feeds on the emerging
seed of agronomic crops in its
immature form. If this is so,
eye gnats may be more serious
a threat than previously
thought.
The eye gnat is away of life
m Georgia's hot Coastal Plain.
Drive in theatres sell hug repel
lent as a matter of course, and
residents smile at a newcomer’s
first flicks and say, "Welcome
to South (Jeorgia! " The ('oast
al Plain gnat isn’t populous in
the area because of heat,
though. Snoddy says it is be
cause loose, sandy soils are
necessary for ils development.
(Another species of gnat
thrives in the clay soils of the
Piedmont area.)
A Steer Is Not All
High Priced Steaks
ATHKNS An imporlmit
factor in Iho price you pay for
Ihh'T is, “Arc you willing to
buy « less desirable cut, or can
you be content with only the
highdemand cuts?"
Apparently the beef short
age of last summer has sub
sided. Beef inventory nation
wide is up five percent; Geor
gia's beef herd has increased In
three percent since last year,
according to the State i'rop
Reporting Service.
Steers over 500 pounds were
estimated at 151,000 head at
the first of the year, up 0,000
from last year. These steers
should be marketed about
now, weighing around 1,000
pounds each. That amounts to
over 151 million pounds of
herd.
That within itself sounds
like a lot of beef, but really it's
a lot of “bull." Supply and
demand arc not the only fac
tors in the price you pay for
beef.
M. K. Cook, animal scientist
with the University of Georgia
Extension Service, says today's
modern • type 1,000- po un d
choice steer produces a l> 15-
pound carcass, approximately.
The packer sells the carcass to
a retailer, who trims away 183
pounds of fat, bone and waste.
The retailer ends up with only
432 pounds of beef to cut,
wrap and sell to consumers.
Os that, a surprisingly small
amount is steak, A much larger
amount is roast. Retail stores
put a higher price tag on steak
and a lower price on pot roast
and ground beef so they will
sell it all. If they didn’t, they
would end up with less-in
demand cuts like pot roast and
short ribs left in the cooler.
Cook says, “Out of the 432
pounds of beef cuts that art 1
carved from a 1,000-pound
steer, only 75 pounds end up
as porterhouse. T-bone, club,
and sirloin steaks. Then* are
Shortly after emergence, the
Coastal Plain eye gnat mates
and the female commonly de
serts the male. She then goes
out to search for moisture—and
for extra food. For these pur
poses, Snoddy says, "mammals
are like a walking oasis to
them.” More than 90 percent
of the gnats that pester mam
mals are females, he says.
The female, in looking for a
place to deposit her eggs, natu
rally gravitates to spots where
the soil has been disturbed.
Besides essential moisture for
her eggs, there is an abundance
of microorganisms produced
by decaying organic matter on
which the young can feed. At
77 degrees, it only takes about
12 days for the young larva to
go through the in-ground stage.
It emerges as a flying adult and
l he cycle begins again.
In the wintertime, the gnat
population is largely in the
ground, in young form, at
which time their life cycle is
dramatically slowed. But when
the temperature reaches 70 de
grees, emergence picks up. A
few gnats appear in late March
or early April and by July the
population is usually at a peak
which d will keep for about
three months. As the tempera
ture drops again, t he gnats seek
grassy and weeded areas until
the first freeze when all adults
are killed
Experiment Stations’ work
104.8 pounds of chuck, mostly
cut into pot roast; 23.4 pounds
ol brisket; 19.1 pounds of
shank; 51 pounds of short
platc>; 32 pounds of flank, 59
pounds of rib from which
comes rib roast, rib steak, and
braising beef; and 137.8
pounds of round, tip. stew,
kabobs or cubes. Trimmed off
of these cuts are 33.2 pounds
of ground beef and 183 pounds
of fat and bone.” There are
also 22.1 pounds of miscella
neous cuts—kidney and hang
ing tender,
Robert McGuire, also an Ex
tension animal scientist, says
the same story is true with
pork. A 210-pound hog has a
150-pound carcass of which
only 120 pounds are saleable
pork. Customers prefer pork
chops to pork steaks or shoul
der roast, as is indicated by
their traditional buying habits.
THE FARMER’S IMAGE
last tall, a special study of the public's opinions regard
ing farmers and agriculture was funded by USDA. Over
.'.OOO in-home Interviews were conducted. Farm and non
•amt, rural and urban residents were included in the survey.
Farmers versus nonfarmers: Percent of people who say
Yes No Same No
opinion
Haider working 68 6 23 3
Moie protective of environment 55 7 35 3
Mote concerned about environment 53 It 33 3
More friendly and helpful 50 4 43 3
Mote dependent on government 49 20 27 4
More productive 4g 22 27 3
More dependable 42 6 49 3
More active politically 29 32 35 4
More powerful politically 22 33 41 4
More prosperous 21 51 24 4
More liberal politically 15 52 28 5
One major misconception held by the general public
regards farmers’ prosperity. Nearly half think farmers are as
well or better off financially than nonfarmers. Truth of the
matter is, the per capita disposable income for farm people
from all sources only reached 93 percent of that of non
farm residents in 1973, a record year for farm income.
with eye gnats has centered
until recently on their “pestif
erous” effect. Snoddy has
found that doses of coball-60
on emerging adults will cause
damage to genetic material in
the next generation—deformed
wings and other maladies ap
pear. This would effectively
keep the gnats from bothering
mammals by making them un
able to fly, but a problem is
the scientists’ inability to breed
these traits back into the
main population.
“Genetic damage to vital
organs commonly occurs in the
second or third generations
when we try to breed them
back,” says Snoddy. “It’s a
shotgun approach. We irradiate
large numbers and then go
back and look for desirable
genetic traits. Our problem is
in getting non-lethal material
back into the gene pool, and
still saving the harmful effect
on the body structure that we
want.”
Other parts of the research
effort have included field baits
and sprays “for immediate,
temporary relief.” But Snoddy
says, “eye gnats are very hard
to kill in the field. It’s not that
pesticides won’t work on
them—we know they do from
our lab work-but we appar
ently aren’t getting it to them.”
But, with last year’s harvest
at Tifton, scientists noticed a
subtler effect, one that is mak
ing them raise their eyebrows
at eye gnats. “We noticed,”
said Snoddy, “that a lot of
seed left in the field tyas being
devoured—literally—by small,
white larvae of the eye gnat.
Researchers held lab trials
with seed from various agro
nomic crops on eye gnat lar
vae—preliminary tests to see
But there are only 13 pounds •;
of chops in the 150-pound :•
carcass. The retailer must sell
107 pounds of other cuts as >
well. That’s why high-demand :•
cuts, like pork chops, cost •:
more. The retailer must price
his pork so that he sells it all ;•
with no picnics, hocks, or ribs ■;
left over. ;'
%
what seed they preferred and
r THANK YOU HOUSTON COUNTY FARMER!' ~ l
v.
DUE TO YOUR TRUST IN US, WE ARE OLDEST CASE I
I DEALERSHIP IN NORTH AMERICA!
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wliat the damage looked like:
‘ We have seen this before in
the field, but apparently we
haven’t recognized it for eye
gnat damage,” Snoddy says.
“The gnats were the most
fond of Southern peas, but
they seemed to be causing the
greatest damage to soybeans,”
he says. Apparently, female
gnats follow the planting of
seeds—a process which involves
disturbing the soil. “We know
from lab observation that when
a seed starts swelling there is a
i great increase in metabolic ac
i tivity. Our preliminary theory
? is that this increase in activity
attracts the larvae; they gather
around the seed and attack the
t embryo.
“If there is normal seed de
■ velopment with no special
problem, the seed will come
■ out fine. But if there is any
stress on the seed—if it begins
i to swell and doesn’t get out
right away because of lack of
i water, cold temperature or
another will usual
ly be the end of the seed,”
Snoddy says, noting that his
explanation is only based on
preliminary findings.
The researcher says that eye
gnats may in fact be to blame
for poor stands in which farm
ers have “tended to blame the
trouble on too much rain or
something else.
“There are many factors
that affect a seed,” says Snod
dy, “and many things that can
stop it from coming out be
sides the eye gnat. But 1 sus
pect there have been many
cases in which, if we didn’t
have the eye gnat present*,
stands would have improved.”
What can researchers do if
the eye gnat is confirmed as
the culprit?
“We may have to start work
ing on better seed
for deterring the gnat larvae,
says Snoddy. “It would be like
any other agricultural pest.
We’d just have to keep looking
and searching.”