Fly Patrol Largo Canyon, NM -- Spent my "free time" cleaning out the donkey pens today. It was a job I had been shirking, especially since Tony had totally shirked cleaning the pen her two mares were in, which now is Tobys pen. Where its a thin veneer from the donkey over a deep layer from the mares,
the dung was pretty thick. I got down and examined it in it moister spots to see if flies were breeding in it. Sure enough, where its dark and moist, there are tiny maggots living boisterously. Now, what I thought was really interesting was that the brown headed cowbirds that have move into our livestock scene, spend their time picking through just the spots that are damp enough to have larval flies. You could probably control fly reproduction just by watching where the cowbirds were spending their time and then drying that spot out by fluffing it up.
My fly traps are working well. They are each about an inch deep in dead flies. Thousands of flies buzz around inside looking for the escape hatch. I keep them baited with a yeasty solution of sugar and liquid drained off the feta cheese. If I had another scrap of screen, I would build another. They are amazing to behold!
The lady from the wasp company in Quemado, Texas, called me today. Her company sells bags of tiny wasps. Actually they are larval wasps and they are living on the bodies of larval flies. They sell them for $15/bag and you need a bag every month or so. You sow the larval flies into your dung heaps and the wasp parasites feed on any unlucky fly larvae that are born into the heap. Something about her voice put me off though and so instead of just ordering a bag, I asked her to send me a list of the wasp species in her parasite mix. She could have just read them to me over the phone, but she played like latin was unpronounceable and said she would just send a list. I just wanted to know if her mix was more than the easily raised but less effective Nasonia vitripennis. I want Muscidifurax raptor , the most effective parasite and the most difficut to raise. Somehow these folks in Quemado have figured it out. I will call them tomorrow and order a bag.
After Phil's birthday (June 9) and my June trip to Chaco, the next big thing coming up is the meeting of the Spanish Trail Association in Las Vegas. My question is: Should John and I go back to the Drive Up Tunnel of Love to once again renew our wedding vows??? He's chuckling in response to the question.
Yrs,
JRW
11:11:10 PM 
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