Yes, I'm blessed with dirt/dust storms too. Last year I had a 70 mph plus wind rip thru here busting trees and taking the roof and trusses off what I call the lake house by the pond. Some EPA official that had never been to AZ said he was going to fix the dust problem a couple years ago. I expected to see 10's of thousands of water trucks descending on the state and driving all over the desert sprinkling water on the ground everyday but for some unexplained reason it never happened.

Not sure what it is, but I think I had two of the same ones on my eggplants. The eggplants were getting chewed up, presumably by flea beetles and maybe these guys. Just to be safe, I removed both of them and squished them. The ones I picked off weren't slimy, they were just really shiny. At first I mistook them for blemishes on the leaves. Really clever camouflage!

Mike, reptiles can carry salmonella infections as well as birds, you can also get salmonella from beef cows and mice. The reason that these animals can carry the bacteria is that they form a sort of symbiotic relationship where they can tolerate the infection and the Salmonella can survive their immune system, you carry E. coli but you aren't dead from it. Some strains are matched to some animals, other strains to other animals, humans don't do well with any strain and that is why we get sick but if people wash their hands and clean their tanks its not a major threat. Its always tempting to blame someone else, but truth be told factory farmed chickens are Salmonella free 99.9% of the time, when they do get it its from wild birds, amphibians, reptiles, or some other wild source. Factory farms are crowded, but they do take care of their animals despite what PETA would have us believe.

More reading, always more reading...It turns out that horseshoe crab meat is the preferred bait for eels and whelks. There is something unique about horseshoe crab meat that attracts eels and whelk more effectively than other baits. That is why horseshoe crabs are being harvested commercially. Research is currently underway at the University of Delaware, into finding out what exactly makes horseshoe crab meat special. They want to make an artificial attractant so that other types of bait can be used to fish for eels and whelks, and therefore relieve the pressure on the population of horseshoe crabs.