Biting black flies

[POC]

There are DIY instructions for traps for these critters. Or you can buy them online.

 

[jix]

Biting Flies....I get itchey just hearing the words. Here in New Brunswick we have so many kinds that I cannot count them..and new item here is stinging caterpillars..larval stage of the tussock moth...but the weirdest critter that bites and stings is called a wood bug It looks like a red striped bumble bee with pincers like a crab and about an inch long overall. It can fly. I can run.
Woods workers run from them, and in wood processing plants, people actually shoot at them, with air staplers. I have only seem two and couldn't get a photo. They only like wet rotten wood in swampy areas.
The worst bite I have had was from a deer fly that looks like a housefly on steroids with a hairy body like a honey bee. Those bastids actually chase you in the woods. Most annoying flies are cattle flies that have black spots on their wing membranes. They can bite on the run, so its hard to smack 'em and if there is one, very soon there are a million zooming around you hear in circles. Nine kinds of wasps in the bush, worst is the black spruce wasp-most common wasp is the yellow jacket hornet. Last summer I used twenty large cans of bug repellant against the seventy zillion blackflies now just getting started here. You don't feel them bite, but you get a really itchey spot on your hide after a minute or so. Blackflies will get into you clothes around the collar, cuffs. socks, pants leg. hereabouts folks use tape to keep the out, and soak their shirts and hats with bug repellant (98% DEET). Despite all the precautions I get bit at least ten times a day. Take Benadryl for the immense itching, put 4% cortisone ointment on the bites... But liquid washing ammonia on a swab works good too.

Gads, now I am itchey all over just from typing this post. Skitters are bad here too, late evenings..but the geezley blackflies do me worse than any other kinda bug. Come July, they seem to buzz off in the dry time

ullinghair:

 

[jcummins]

I recall seeing, i thought on this forum, perhaps not of a helmet rigged up with a bottle and sticky fly paper. The flies go to the high point.... On your head, and get stuck.

Anyone recall seeing that. Can't find anything on it.

 

[dave1949]

I recall seeing, i thought on this forum, perhaps not of a helmet rigged up with a bottle and sticky fly paper. The flies go to the high point.... On your head, and get stuck.

Anyone recall seeing that. Can't find anything on it.

People use Tanglefoot, a sticky tree trunk crawling bug trap. They put it on blue Solo cups then mount the Solo cup on a hat or tractor, or ...

 

[jcummins]

That's IT. The rig i saw looked goofy, but after this last mowing, i might try it.

 

[jix]

There is a strip that is sold on a website that sells high quality tools in Canada, if my memory serves, called Lee Valley Tools. It is designed to be placed on the back of a ball cap to catch "circle flies" by a sticky substance which the flies land on./; The flies land on it and they cannot get off. I have never used it, but it looks very effective for any kind of fly that gets close. I think that the "circle flies" are deer flies, horse flies, cattle flies, any of those annoying flies that circle your head looking to bite you.
Lee Valley have a high reputation for exceptional stuff, but pricey. Check it out, FWIW.

 

[s219]

People use Tanglefoot, a sticky tree trunk crawling bug trap. They put it on blue Solo cups then mount the Solo cup on a hat or tractor, or ...

Yep, tried this last summer and it worked like a charm. Could have used that Sunday while mowing, as I bet I would have caught a few dozen of the little jerks. Never got bit but they were orbiting my head the whole time.

 

[dave1949]

Yep, tried this last summer and it worked like a charm. Could have used that Sunday while mowing, as I bet I would have caught a few dozen of the little jerks. Never got bit but they were orbiting my head the whole time.

I think that method is aimed more at deer flies than black flies. Black flies look for something to get under; up a shirtsleeve or pant leg, under a hat brim, behind the bow of eye glasses, up under long hair.

I use Deep Woods Off with DEET to keep them off me but yesterday on the tractor doing some grading I stirred up a mess of them and have few bites just above where my socks reach to up under my pant leg.

Warmer weather is what ends the black fly season here, and brings on the deer flies.

 

[JamesHW]

The black flies and mosquitos have not been too bad here in Upstate NY this spring. Working in the woods clearing brush I've been buzzed by a couple but the dab of Deet I rub on my neck and the backs of my hands seems to discourage them and they go off to bother something or someone else. I also have gotten into the habit of sticking my pant legs into my socks for additional protection.

Mosquitos have not been bad and sitting out back we would be bothered by a few but found an old citronella candle which provided relief and allowed us to relax and enjoy sitting outside at dusk. It is very dry here (3-6 rain deficit and ongoing burn ban) so the usual wet areas where I drop dunks are dry, so I suspect that is why we are enjoying fewer mosquitos despite very warm temps for mid-May (finally got rain last night).

The ticks on the other hand are very active and we have had to be vigilant to check for them all the time including the cats who are allowed outside into an enclosure we setup so they could enjoy being outside but not get carried off by a coyote or hawk.

 

[lynn225]

I did some small mountain stream trout fishing last Friday on a weekend camping trip in northern PA. I landed 15 trout within about 4 hours. I didn't have any bug stuff with me, and ended up with about 20 black fly bites on my forehead where they came in under the brim. I didn't realize I had so many until Sunday evening when I got home.

I quit fishing early that day because I got a splitting headache... maybe from all of those bites!