The Year of the Pecker-Gnat

One of the strange this about this year is the weather... it is not so much global warming as it is global weirding, or perhaps global laming. One thing I noticed a lot of when I was training earlier in the year was the sheer number of insects out and about. The first thing I learned about said insects is that a combination of Coppertone Sport SPF 50 and sweat will kill any bug that has the misfortune to run into my bare arms, legs, neck... etc.

When I would get done with a long bike ride I would be covered with small flies and other bugs. On one particular ride, I went through a swarm of bugs very early in the ride. When I got home and finished the ride, I took a shower and later that night I realized I had many small spots all over my arms. The bugs left tan lines  leaving light spots everywhere a bug was.

I also rode through my share of bug swarms, mainly consisting of pecker-gnats. I would invariably get a mouth full, or at least a lung full. Extra protein... yummy.

Gnat Swarm found here

I am calling this the Year of the Pecker-Gnat because even though it is now fall, there still seem to be an inordinate number of these little bugs. They also seem to be small enough to make it through the screens in our windows at home. There is nothing better than sitting down to eat and being dive bombed by 2 or 3 pecker gnats.

I hate those things.

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