Are bugs bugging you at your cookout or picnic? So, what can we do about these annoying buggaboos? Gary Crawford has some advice from an expert on this edition of Agriculture USA. 
 

PARTICIPANTS: Gary Crawford and Kait Chapman, extension insect expert at the University of Nebraska.

It's summertime summertime some some summertime some yes, it is here full force and out there on the Major League baseball diamonds Playing baseball in the Sun are the so-called boys of summer While many of us are trying to have cookouts and picnics and are fighting our annual battles with the bugs of summer.

Yes Coming up some expert advice about the bugs of summer on this edition of agriculture USA.

I'm Gary Crawford Now some people don't mind the insects horning in on things after all we are invading their space But for some I hate bugs any kind of bugs And so many of us go out armed to the teeth with all kinds of devices all kinds of candles and foggers and zappers You name it.

Yeah, there's a lot of products out there and lots of them don't work Just like me.

That's a Kate Chapman insect expert University of Nebraska And yes, the home catalogs are full of products such as devices that send out Ultrasonic sound waves that are supposed to repel the insects.

She says studies show those don't work now some folks have Those electric bug zappers and yes, she says they might zap a few mosquitoes and wasps But also they zap many other beneficial insects that don't do anybody any harm Now, of course millions of us burn a lot of citronella candles and such which are supposed to keep mosquitoes away However, there's a lot of lab studies that show citronella can have a repellent effect But those are lab studies with high concentrations of citronella and we're not getting those same concentrations in the candles And so while we're getting some out there, it's just not enough So is there anything that will help keep our cookout reasonably free of mosquito bites?

Kate says there is something we can do days ahead of the cookout The best thing you can do is if there's any standing water on your property or around is dump it so Mosquitoes the first part of their life cycle the larvae they actually live in the water So dump any that you can find meanwhile, here's something to try at the cookout itself.

I'll just to turn this fan on Fans work great to a lot of these insects like flies and mosquitoes.

They're not great flyers So if you get like a standing fan that you can put out you're not only keeping yourself cool But you're also going to deter these flying insects, too Now finally, there are several personal repellents and they do help, you know, they're approved.

They work really well We have deets we have a keratin Permethrin for clothing and I think a third one that was just recently registered and approved.

It's called oil of lemon eucalyptus Kate says nothing is going to work 100 percent especially repelling Mosquitoes wasps and bees.

Oh my Yes, but what about ants?

One of my favorite 50 science fiction movies is them what about those giant ants.

Which is being invaded by a slew of giant ants Kate Chapman says normal-sized ants are a big enough problem.

Of course in some cases folks just do not want any ants around a cookout or picnic.

No tolerance for them, but it's really hard to keep them totally away You can always go the pesticide route with ants, but you know ants live outdoors.

That's just where they're gonna be and you can do a pesticide but chances are they're gonna come back a week later.

Now some people try the various bait traps and such we usually only recommend those if we find them foraging inside.

Kate says she gets a lot of calls from people whose homes have been invaded by foraging ants now.

You think a simple solution would be one of those poisoned bait products.

But a lot of it goes down to what type of ant problem it is, you know here in Nebraska.

We have a dozen different ant species and some ant species.

Prefer the really sugary bait traps and some ant species won't even go near them.

So if someone calls me first thing I say is well We need to figure out what it is.

Bring me a sample so I can look under the microscope and then we can go from there.

Kate says many people come to her after searching online for so-called surefire.

Insect control tricks and indeed she says when you search for those you'll get literally thousands of hits that are going to tell you, “Oh vinegar works.”

Oh cayenne pepper cinnamon things like that Just kind of be wary.

That's gonna be my biggest piece of advice, except to start by going to experts like her right off the bat land-grant universities across the country.

They have Extension and that's what we're here for is to answer those questions and provide you research-based information.

And there are solutions out there for almost every insect problem.

That's bugging you except maybe if the insects are 30 feet long.

That one might be a problem.

This is mint agriculture USA I'm Gary Crawford reporting for the US Department of Agriculture