We had a particularly mild winter, minus one 30 inch blizzard. And this summer the ticks and flies are terrible. Props to the county mosquito guys, with the Zika thing, I have only seen the mosquitoes rarely.
However, a new predator I've never encountered before is driving me crazy. They look like fireflies but bite. They circle your head like a shark circles a seal for a few minutes then bump into your head a few times then dig in for dinner.
I'm sure, from a distance (and nearby), I appear to be some rabid lunatic, waving my hat around wildly and cursing at some invisible foe as I stroll through the woods.
Anybody know what these SOBs are and what drives them away?
I'm tempted to buy some surplus DDT from the Chinese and rig up a hopper to a leaf blower and go full out terminator on these flying carniverious cockroaches.
Sounds like deer flies. Here in the south we have their evil twin, the sand fly or yellow fly. They HURT when they bite.
Andy
Deer fly was my thought also. Mean bastids.
The Deer Flies have been really bad this year.
Try using a repellent with a high percentage of DEET. Put it on an old hat, not a cure but it will help.
Deer flies, yellow flies, horse flies...they're all the Devil's minions as far as I'm concerned. Some of them will even bite straight through your shirt.
I have had good luck in not getting bitten by staying indoors from June through October..
Deer flies. Once you've attracted one, it's there for some time.
The area I'm headed to shortly is swarming with these 'deer' flies. About the size of a small bee and pretty slow and easy to kill, if you notice them in time. Usually know about the ones missed by the trickle of blood running down the back of your arm or neck and the giant welt at the bite site the next day where you got 'tapped'. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be too bothered by DEET.
Dan Dunn, post: 380307, member: 911 wrote: Try using a repellent with a high percentage of DEET
They say DEET causes cancer; but to be honest I don't care how the little b@stards die
Skin-So-Soft
you'll smell nice and your skin will be so soft...too
It seems that DEET works best for mosquitos and maybe chigglers, but Skin-So-Soft and other concoctions are more effective at repelling flies and gnats.
Gnats will drive a sane person crazy in no time. Especially when they land on your eye lash just as you are attempting to look into the instrument. Once they are hung up they always seem to end up in your eye. ARGHHHHHHH! Or, they go up your noise during a healthy inhalation or into your mouth if you are silly enough to open it in their presence.
Inhaled a mosquito today. Pretty sure I can still feel it buzzing around in there. My gag reflexes must be slowing down with age.
In western Chickasaw County, Mississippi, one can start walking from an open field toward the nearby woods. First, the horseflies come out to greet you, followed closely by the deer flies in swarms. When you are almost to the woods, the mosquitos start swarming toward you. I have had to wear a thick long-sleeved shirt in the hot summertime with a brimmed hat and face netting and gloves on some surveys in the Yalobusha River headwater bottomland, which is also the home of the famous blue-veined gumbo clay. I have stuck my ATV and created cones of mud on all four wheels, and it took a nearby log skidder to pull me out. It was the only thing that could get to where I was. Power washing was the only way to get all the sticky mud off. This area is also home to the biggest water moccasins that I have ever seen - longer than four feet, thick as my arm, shoe-leather brown with black-and-white chevron markings on their tails; old and venomous, and waiting for a surveyor to step on them. Been there, done that, left skid marks!!
Dryer sheets tucked into the back of your shirt collar will "help" keep gnats away. An old fellow I worked with years ago said that the only way to keep them out of your face was to cut a hole in the seat of your britches.
Andy
Deer Fly Patches are all the rage now. It's basically double sided duct tape that you stick to the back of your hat. Since deer flies like to bump into your head a few times before they choose their dinner location, they bump the tape and get stuck. Game over. They definitely work well.
It may sound foolish, but try putting your hat on a lath or stick and hold it over your head a couple feet. The Deer flies seem to like the highest point.
FL/GA PLS., post: 380400, member: 379 wrote:
Does that thing come with air conditioning?
C Billingsley, post: 380595, member: 1965 wrote: Does that thing come with air conditioning?
Yes, but it's "optional".
