Those darn flies

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,153
4,257
Pines; Bamber area
The little black ones are back again. I can't go to the garage without them attacking my legs. I have to buy one of those little raw meat traps. I like to drink them dry when they fill up with fly guts.

By the way, I'm getting one of these cups for my hat while I'm out in the woods. I'll let you know how I make out.

http://ufinsect.ifas.ufl.edu/deerfly_trap.htm
 

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
4,944
3,080
Pestletown, N.J.
The deer flies are pretty bad down here and one thing that amazes me is the concentrations of the flies in localized spots.
When I walk each night I cover a 3 mile loop and I know which spots along the loop are going to be bad.
The same spots are bad each year too.
I don't see any one physical condition drastically different than any other in these spots.
I spray a baseball hat each night with a DEET spray and spray the back of my (white, never blue) tee shirt before I start out. They buzz me and drive me insane but don't land long enough to bite.
A few more weeks and they will fade back into the soil and end the cycle for another year.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,153
4,257
Pines; Bamber area
The deer flies are pretty bad down here and one thing that amazes me is the concentrations of the flies in localized spots.
When I walk each night I cover a 3 mile loop and I know which spots along the loop are going to be bad.

I always get it the worst in lowland, when its shady or cloudy and humid out.
 

grendel

Explorer
Feb 24, 2006
561
2
Fredericksburg VA
The little black ones are back again. I can't go to the garage without them attacking my legs. I have to buy one of those little raw meat traps. I like to drink them dry when they fill up with fly guts.

By the way, I'm getting one of these cups for my hat while I'm out in the woods. I'll let you know how I make out.

http://ufinsect.ifas.ufl.edu/deerfly_trap.htm

If the hat was tin foil you could relect sunlight and government thought probes! you could cover all the bases!:v:
 

GermanG

Piney
Apr 2, 2005
1,111
434
Little Egg Harbor
I live fairly close to the saltmarshes on Great Bay Blvd in Little Egg Harbor. The greenheads were pretty bad the first few years I was there. You had to run from the car to the house on some days. For the last 15 or so years, though, they stopped being a problem on my property. I never figured out why, perhaps chalking it up to the activities of the county mosquito commission on the marshes. This year, suddenly, I can barely work in my yard. They are nowhere near as bad as the areas closer to the water but I've had as many as a half dozen at a time on me. Drought? Climate change? Beats me but it sure ain't fun!
 

NJSnakeMan

Explorer
Jun 3, 2004
332
0
33
Atlantic County
Was out in the burlington co. area somewhere off of rt563 friday, and boy was i chased out of there! I never had such a bad experience with those flies in my life! I felt like i was in a movie, running back to my car for safety, looking back watching a swarm of these demon-flies come after me... lol haha....

does deet or any other insect repellant work for those things?
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,153
4,257
Pines; Bamber area
Was out in the burlington co. area somewhere off of rt563 friday, and boy was i chased out of there! I never had such a bad experience with those flies in my life! I felt like i was in a movie, running back to my car for safety, looking back watching a swarm of these demon-flies come after me... lol haha....

does deet or any other insect repellant work for those things?

I always wear one of those sahara desert hats with the curtain covering my neck in the back. And I do spray the hat too. It helps.
 
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