(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
SPOKANE, Wash. -Feel like you have to keep swatting bugs away when you've been walking outside this week? What you might be calling gnats, are really blue ash aphids. And right now they are more active than ever, because it's mating season.
KHQ met a couple who noticed the blue ash aphids right when they started their walk in the park.
"We were hoping to have some fun at Manito Park, but ended up dodging gnats instead," Valerie Corsiglia said.
She is visiting from Sandpoint, and wanted to spend her day relaxing. But now, she's getting in an arm workout.
"Even if they're not on me, I feel like they are. So I keep swatting at myself," Corsiglia said.
With the temperature was getting in the low thirty's over night, you might have thought nature would take care of this pesky problem. But master gardener, Julie McElroy, says it's going to be a few more weeks.
"Once we have a really good hard freeze, you won't see them anymore," McElroy said.
"Other than the gnats, it's a beautiful day here in Spokane," McElroy said.
And that might be the problem, because the blue ash aphids like to be out, when you want to be out. When it's sunny.
"They don't hurt anything, except maybe your teeth when you're riding your bike and your mouth is open," McElroy said.
So keep washing your windshields, because we're going to have to ride this one out.