The BUGS have arrived!

Seriously, if there is ONE THING (besides the humidity) that I could do without here in the south it is the BUGS!!!! NO - REALLY - you have NO idea! I can count on my fingers the number of mosquito bites I had all the years growing up in California. Heck, there, they don't even stress heart worm prevention in dogs like we do here because there ARE no bugs really! Okay, there are bugs in California...just not like we have in Texas!

Fireants in California are RED - BRIGHT RED - and LARGE!  I had never had a small black ant bite me until I met the "sugar ants" aka "piss ants" and whatever else people call them here!

Roaches - yes, the mighty survive an atom bomb cockroach - are small in size AND number back home...here the dang things are GIANT AND fly at your head AND BITE!

Mosquitoes - oh lordy me oh my for the freakin' mosquitoes!  For real, you BARELY find them back home - not like they are here at all!  I can watch them landing on the goats udders as I milk in the evenings, see them filling up with juicy goat blood, and my goats are now so accustomed to being smacked they don't even fidget!  I will smack a bug with one hand and milk with the other now....getting pretty good at it!

AND STINGING THINGS OF ALL KINDS!  For real, I could easily do without the wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets - you have NO idea! Last week James was stung on the hand scooting the "baby pig tractor" and the very next day what I am now sure was the same wasp got me on the leg! Thankfully I suppose, it was a fairly benign black one...because we both walked away relatively unharmed except for a few hours of an uncomfortable burning....the nest in question was of course sprayed to oblivion hehehehe...

I SAW A TARANTULA today!  No really, pretty sure it was a tarantula....big as the palm of my hand and took off while I was looking for a hammer to whack it with - this sucker was so big I was NOT gonna step on it!  If it returns I will try to get a pic AND kill it!

Then there are the flies,. gnats, June bugs, beetles, and other things that buzz around my head, whizz past my face, and stick to the windows at night....BLEH!!!!  Sometime during this holiday weekend I am loading up Mr Farmer with a few cans of various sprays and sending him on a mission to kill! I am itching just thinking about the darn bugs! It's a war I will never win here, but a battle I am at least willing to fight!

Speaking of feet and eyelids...

Today is the day - I'm actually behind on this, I try to hit it at the first of the month.  But with everything I have had going on with the kitchen and such I let March get away from me...

Today I have been outside trimming hooves and checking eyelids...woo fun right?  Doing a little worming inbetween too...trying to get the goats who are due to kid in May all set and the others just caught up in general...

The FAMACHA test is a good place to start with your goats to determine if they need to be wormed - but it is NOT the end all be all guide!!! It only helps detect a few of the little blood suckers...so be sure to either get a fecal done by your vet at least occasionally...OR...learn to do them yourself.

I need a microscope...I keep saying I am going to get one...but it hasn't happened yet...

Until then, I either run a few samples to the vet OR I use  this lab which is SUPER cheap to mail my samples in to.  They do all sorts of critters from goats to horses to cattle, it's cheap I said, and the post office IS closer than the vet for me at least! I try to send in a sample in the spring (i.e. NOW) and one in the fall to be sure what I am doing is working and keeping everyone parasite free.  Well, at least they have less parasites than some others I suppose...nothing that lives outside in hot, humid, muggy, damp East Texas id EVER really "parasite free" ya know???

I know some people do the whole organic all natural thing with their herds.  For us, where we live, it does NOT work!  Nope, no can do....maybe it's the fact that this place used to be an ucky mucky hog farm...or the climate...or the fact that we live in soggy river bottom...who knows?  It's probably a combo of things.  But natural herbal stuff is merely a minor way to keep things down between times when I pull out the "big guns" so to speak.  Today, my go to is cydectin - yes, it is stinky harsh stuff - but it WORKS!  I bring it out 3 or 4 times a year if that and everyone is fine.  The worms here laugh at other products.  No really, I can hear them chuckling if they see me with SafeGuard.  That ones a big waste of my money...totally useless per fecal testing at the vet...

So...if you have critters and the weather permits, take a minute to get out there and give them a good once over.  It's what I am up to today.  The fodder saga shall continue tomorrow perhaps...until then I am off to go spend the afternoon with the herd :)