GAACK! Black flies are out Wicked!

[DarkBlack]

You haven’t experienced fun till you hit the perfect black fly trifecta.. one goes in your ear, another into the corner of your eye, and before you can deal with them, a third one gets inhaled and stuck in your throat and you bend over and start dry heaving.
Good times. Usually is mercifully over in two weeks

 

[sixdogs]

You haven’t experienced fun till you hit the perfect black fly trifecta.. one goes in your ear, another into the corner of your eye, and before you can deal with them, a third one gets inhaled and stuck in your throat and you bend over and start dry heaving.
Good times. Usually is mercifully over in two weeks

Probably not a good time to mention that right after backflies are said to be over in northern New England, because they are only partly over, mosquitos start to bite at dusk and also early dawn. Annoying little b@#*&%s that make life outside in the north a dawn to dusk experience.

 

[dodge man]

I helped a friend put in field tile yesterday and after lunch they got bad. I must have had 50 of them around my face. After an hour of that I had to get away from them and got in the truck for about 3 minutes. I got back out and they weren’t near as bad rest of the day. I don’t know what changed?

 

[Mtsoxfan]

Rule of thumb around here for black fly season, Memorial Day to July 4th, sometimes starts earlier depending on weather. Sometimes gone before July 4th.
I'm trying to attract bats, put up a duplex for them. We have a stream running right behind that, not sure if there is enough space to fly by drink the water.

 

[ponytug]

Is that what they are doing now? Every time you get a tick bite you have to take antibiotics as a prophylactic to lyme disease? That seems a little extreme.

We have a lot of nasty bugs here in the south, but black flies are not one of them. After reading this post I am VERY glad about that. They sound like dreadful creatures.

It depends a great deal on where you live. Some areas of the US have so much Lyme disease in the ticks, that the recommendation is now "treat first, ask questions later". Maine is definitely one of those areas, and I think that I would not wish chronic Lyme disease on anyone.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ponytug]

I helped a friend put in field tile yesterday and after lunch they got bad. I must have had 50 of them around my face. After an hour of that I had to get away from them and got in the truck for about 3 minutes. I got back out and they weren’t near as bad rest of the day. I don’t know what changed?

In my experience, some times all it takes is a tiny increase in wind speed to make all the difference for black flies.

All the best,

Peter

 

[HawkinsHollow]

It depends a great deal on where you live. Some areas of the US have so much Lyme disease in the ticks, that the recommendation is now "treat first, ask questions later". Maine is definitely one of those areas, and I think that I would not wish chronic Lyme disease on anyone.

All the best,

Peter

Hmmm, interesting! I did not know that. I just looked at a Lyme disease prevalence map. WAY more Lyme disease in the NE. Next to nothing down here in the SE. Another check mark on the bug comparison chart for the SE. Ok, back to black flies

 

[Oaktree]

We have a lot of nasty bugs here in the south, but black flies are not one of them. After reading this post I am VERY glad about that. They sound like dreadful creatures.

I dunno, at least we don't have chiggers. From what I hear they're way worse than blackflies. At least blackflies are only around for 3-4 weeks, pretty much gone by first week in June. Of course, their lifespan corresponds with the first "nice" weather of the year too, just when you want to be outside.

Probably not a good time to mention that right after backflies are said to be over in northern New England, because they are only partly over, mosquitos start to bite at dusk and also early dawn. Annoying little b@#*&%s that make life outside in the north a dawn to dusk experience.

And don't even think about going into the woods much before mid-August (or later if it's been a rainy summer).

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I dunno, at least we don't have chiggers. From what I hear they're way worse than blackflies. At least blackflies are only around for 3-4 weeks, pretty much gone by first week in June. Of course, their lifespan corresponds with the first "nice" weather of the year too, just when you want to be outside.

And don't even think about going into the woods much before mid-August (or later if it's been a rainy summer).

Yes, Chiggers SUCK!! But they are pretty easy to avoid. Stay out of the long grass and maybe take a shower really quick after you get done if you can. I haven't gotten chiggers in years.

 

[ning]

Is that what they are doing now? Every time you get a tick bite you have to take antibiotics as a prophylactic to lyme disease? That seems a little extreme.

We have a lot of nasty bugs here in the south, but black flies are not one of them. After reading this post I am VERY glad about that. They sound like dreadful creatures.

Thing is, tests for Lyme aren't accurate for at least a four weeks, if not longer.
However, once it's embedded, it takes ridiculous amounts of antibiotics to treat... but a quick run of antibiotics taken within 72h of the bite seem to keep it from sticking.

I got a tick in March, near the top of my thigh - surprised the heck out of me because work pants etc but I realized I'd had a cat on my lap when I was sitting just in boxers...
anyways the next day I had swollen lymph nodes right in the region of the bite so I got on antibiotics, something obviously was bothering the immune system.

Strange thing, a month later I got another tick, up on my shoulder, and while I didn't get any obvious lymph reaction from that I developed a hair-trigger motion sickness within a few hours. I couldn't walk around the house without feeling nauseous and I suddenly had a terrible sense of balance, but felt fine if I was lying down. More antibiotics and slept for most of four days, what else are you going to do when everything triggers it. Took two weeks to get mostly back to normal; not sure what happened (it wasn't BPPV, I have that and know how to "fix" it and this was completely different and didn't respond at all to the epley).