YELLOW FLIES!!!!! AKA Deer Flies

[tcreeley]

I like straw hats. I put the bug stuff on the brim, top and under the brim if it is really bad. I can't stand the stuff on my skin - any of it. (I use a local natural repellent.)
If the sun is shining you can watch the shadow of a deer fly as it flies around your head. You can also feel them when it lands on your head. The trick is to get them to land on your head and kill them with a slap just as they do land. Then wait for the next if there is another!

 

[the old grind]

The college folks seem to agree that DEET and other recognized repellants are pretty much ineffective for deer flies. I'm sure any would agree that the blue color (Tupperware bowl, econo hard hat) has a particular draw as would say certain flowers to certain birds or butterflies. The rascals are attracted to dark, moving objects (ie: furry critters) and tend to land on the head first. Info in the links bears out the science, and for me some of it was as stimulating as reading a good revenge novel. :thumbsup:

Anyone who hasn't can try this on the cheap: cut 4 vertical slits to the bottom of a blue solo cup and squash it into abroad 'x' or separate the petals. Paper-punch holes and lace, zip-strip, or just staple to a comfortable old hat. Add stickum of choice (tangle-foot, flypaper, etc) onto or alongside the blue parts and dare to go 'out there'. Wave an arm or two if you here a buzz (.... in a canoe with a heavy bucket of traps & lbs of metal stakes? .. ) and I seriously doubt you'll ever feel or slap as many DFs as you'll find trapped in the goo.

 

[tcreeley]

The college folks seem to agree that DEET and other recognized repellants are pretty much ineffective for deer flies. I'm sure any would agree that the blue color (Tupperware bowl, econo hard hat) has a particular draw as would say certain flowers to certain birds or butterflies. The rascals are attracted to dark, moving objects (ie: furry critters) and tend to land on the head first. Info in the links bears out the science, and for me some of it was as stimulating as reading a good revenge novel. :thumbsup:

Anyone who hasn't can try this on the cheap: cut 4 vertical slits to the bottom of a blue solo cup and squash it into abroad 'x' or separate the petals. Paper-punch holes and lace, zip-strip, or just staple to a comfortable old hat. Add stickum of choice (tangle-foot, flypaper, etc) onto or alongside the blue parts and dare to go 'out there'. Wave an arm or two if you here a buzz (.... in a canoe with a heavy bucket of traps & lbs of metal stakes? .. ) and I seriously doubt you'll ever feel or slap as many DFs as you'll find trapped in the goo.

:thumbsup:- you sound experienced!

 

[rekees4300]

You can also feel them when it lands on your head. The trick is to get them to land on your head and kill them with a slap just as they do land.

I play a little game with them while dog walking. I get one point if I kill them without being bitten, they get one point if they bite me then escape, no points are awarded if they bite me and then I kill them. Last year the score was me=53 them=29 so it was a good season. :laughing:

 

[Jstpssng]

Around here, you can't go outside after 5 without being swarmed with black flies in your face. But I can report that they don't have much taste!

They haven't been bad yet this year... but with all the wet weather they're just WAITING for a few warm days! Blackfly bites bother me more than a bee sting...

The college folks seem to agree that DEET and other recognized repellants are pretty much ineffective for deer flies. I'm sure any would agree that the blue color (Tupperware bowl, econo hard hat) has a particular draw as would say certain flowers to certain birds or butterflies. The rascals are attracted to dark, moving objects (ie: furry critters) and tend to land on the head first. Info in the links bears out the science, and for me some of it was as stimulating as reading a good revenge novel. :thumbsup:

Anyone who hasn't can try this on the cheap: cut 4 vertical slits to the bottom of a blue solo cup and squash it into abroad 'x' or separate the petals. Paper-punch holes and lace, zip-strip, or just staple to a comfortable old hat. Add stickum of choice (tangle-foot, flypaper, etc) onto or alongside the blue parts and dare to go 'out there'. Wave an arm or two if you here a buzz (.... in a canoe with a heavy bucket of traps & lbs of metal stakes? .. ) and I seriously doubt you'll ever feel or slap as many DFs as you'll find trapped in the goo.

The old time wood cutters up here would coat their hardhats with bar & chain oil, to catch the little buggers. once they land, they don't leave. :thumbsup:


Not much trapping up here during blackfly season though. just curious what you lay steel for in springtime?

 

[the old grind]

They haven't been bad yet this year... but with all the wet weather they're just WAITING for a few warm days ...
The old time wood cutters up here would coat their hardhats with bar & chain oil, to catch the little buggers. once they land, they don't leave. :thumbsup:

Not much trapping up here during blackfly season though. just curious what you lay steel for in springtime?

Rats only, lawfully tho' outside of MI's regular fur harvesting seasons, working from the water along 1k' of shoreline they undermine, and where I'm also battling 'phragmites australis' (invasive common reed grass) to regain some cattails & reclaim banks lost to the tunneling %@*&%@#s before I retired. :hissyfit:

btw: Coni 160 is easier to set under willow roots than 110 and doubles for chucks all year when I won't take time to spot & stalk with a firearm. %*&/$#@!Deer flies can spoil either mode of fun! :thumbdown: Fortunately, varmints don't ever seem to mind a bright blue headpiece.

Anyway, a sticky blue hat (all work) is often a must in the 'boats' or for mowing after the fist DF I swipe at, and never a bite when wearing one for a few years now. The nasty little bombers do peak at odd times, and I'm not sure if the woods next door or the water, as I'd read, were the big draw (habitat). :confused3: Apparently either will do.

 

[Clint S]

I play a little game with them while dog walking. I get one point if I kill them without being bitten, they get one point if they bite me then escape, no points are awarded if they bite me and then I kill them. Last year the score was me=53 them=29 so it was a good season. :laughing:

Problem is that you have to all but assault yourself to kill them. I have smacked them on me so hard I leave a hand print and they just shake it off give me the finger and fly away.

 

[rekees4300]

Problem is that you have to all but assault yourself to kill them. I have smacked them on me so hard I leave a hand print and they just shake it off give me the finger and fly away.

Yeah they are tough little demons, it takes a direct hit to kill them. Appears they declared the season officially open today. Did some brushhogging in the pasture and they were out in force. Either they are getting faster or I'm getting slower. Several attempts from close range and didn't even get one! :tractor:

 

[phiferpharm]

Well, I just put out a dozen Blue Dixie Cups with stick-um in the barn, stable, and under the eves of a two car pole barn. Let's see if it works...

 

[newbury]

Well, I just put out a dozen Blue Dixie Cups with stick-um in the barn, stable, and under the eves of a two car pole barn. Let's see if it works...

Reading the literature indicated that those traps are not effective unless they are moving. Attach to vehicles, hats, cows, etc. Some have used them on a line or pole where they could move with the breeze.

Also more effective over a meter high.

Could be a new tractor attachment!