Shortsville getting bugged by swarms of insects
Many village residents are at wit's end with swarms of tiny black gnats, or maybe teensy little flies. Whatever they are, they're annoying.
Over the past several weeks, the pests have plagued people inside their homes and, to some extent, outside as well. Although bugs won't be buzzing outside in the cold weather soon to come, they may still be a bother inside.
"I'm bombarded with fruit flies, and I'm going crazy," said Lisa Hunt, who lives in Lake Country Estates. "If they're inside, a cold snap won't kill them."
She said she called the state Department of Environmental Conservation about the infestation and was told it was not the department's responsibility.
"It's not a Shortsville problem, it's a county issue - it's random and it's in different areas at different times," said Mayor Robert Woodhams. "I don't have them at my house."
Woodhams discussed the problem with joint sewer operator Brian Romeiser, who told him the bugs aren't coming out of people's drains but rather fly into pipe openings because it's moist there. The culprit, if there is one, is lower-than-normal rainfall.
Woodhams said Romeiser told him the dry weather makes the pipes an attractive breeding place.
"People think it's coming from the kraut factory - which is in the town of Manchester, not the village - but it's not," the mayor said.
Residents have complained that cabbage silage from the Great Lakes Kraut Co. is spread on nearby fields by farmers, causing a stench and attracting insects.
"The cabbage is not buried, it hasn't been tilled over, and it attracts bugs," Hunt said.
But Woodhams said he discussed the air-quality issue with the folks at the sauerkraut company.
"They've used cabbage leaves in the silage, but not in the past week," Woodhams said. "They've been taking their leaves out of town, out of the area, and plowed under what was left" - something that is supposed to be done within three days.
Meanwhile, the pesky gnats persist.
Hunt found an effective weapon - a bug zapper - someone put out for trash haulers. She hung it in her kitchen with a bucket underneath to catch electrified flies. Although the nonstop zapping sound bugged her at first, she has gotten used to it, noting that it's better than the alternative.
She's still stumped as to how the gnats get inside in the first place, with no open windows or doors.
Again, Woodhams said the problem is helter-skelter.
"Others in the vicinity don't have these things," he said. "The (village) deputy clerk said her husband set down a glass of orange juice and within minutes all these flies were around. I can leave a can of soda out inside the house all night long and there are no bugs."
He thinks the dry-weather explanation proffered by Romeiser makes sense, and he's certain it has been dry.
"I put six or seven thousand miles on my motorcycle because there's been no rain - I don't drive it in the rain - and I usually log three or four thousand miles," Woodhams said.