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Old 05-27-2009, 12:37 PM
 
Location: Connecticut
1,462 posts, read 4,871,373 times
Reputation: 1668

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Quote:
Originally Posted by PGM View Post
I'm going up to Bangor at some point during the summer are they bad up there?
Yes. I was at a funeral in later April in Bangor and they were at the freakin' cemetery chewing on everyone...miserable stuff these blackflies. Bring lots of fly repellent. You can even buy those yellow bracelets that the folks from OFF make and wear one of them on each wrist. I also understand that the less perfume and hairspray you use the better off you are and also that if you take Vitamin B it helps keep them away.
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Old 05-27-2009, 12:42 PM
 
Location: West Michigan
12,083 posts, read 38,886,126 times
Reputation: 17006
Best way to keep them off of you is to take a fresh Orange or other sweet smelling item and rub it all over somebody else in your group. Doesn't win you any friends, but you get points for having chones and style.

Honestly it all depends on the year and the conditions. Some years they are enough to drive you crazy (last Spring in the Caribou/PI area was one of these), and other years they are not bad at all.
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Old 05-27-2009, 02:45 PM
 
Location: Spencer MA, Sherman ME
78 posts, read 163,730 times
Reputation: 49
Black flies were heavy at our camp in Sherman this past weekend!!
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Old 05-27-2009, 03:16 PM
 
Location: Mid Missouri
21,353 posts, read 8,458,507 times
Reputation: 33342
Dang things got in my truck each morning while I was buying coffee at the take-out window at Mickey D's last week in Belfast!!

I made the necessary mistake of leaving the truck windows open for the dogs while I ran into Reny's (OMG it's all done over and expanded in Belfast... and so CLEAN!!! - NICE!!!) and when I came out, they were inside the truck. I had fly guts all over the inside of the windshield from swattin' them with a mitten!!!

Didn't encounter a one down in Steuben though!

Since there were some on the loose at the campground, I drove home with them in my hair, biting my left ear lobe, my neck, the top of my dome... UGH! The outside of the truck looked like someone threw berries at it... the black fly guts were that bad!!! Had to scrub them off with the scrubby end of the sponge! YUCK!
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Old 05-27-2009, 03:30 PM
 
189 posts, read 301,816 times
Reputation: 373
I think they choose their victims, but I don't know what it is that makes some people particularly tasty. I've been bitten so badly that blood was flowing down my face while other people around me seemed immune - this in spite of being covered with repellent and wearing no perfume, makeup or any other products that might attract them. If conditions are right and they start biting, they can certainly drive you away and make you sorry you ever went outside.
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Old 05-27-2009, 04:54 PM
 
Location: Northern Maine
10,428 posts, read 18,709,803 times
Reputation: 11563
I think it's because old Mainers get used up and the flies think all the goodness is gone out of them. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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Old 05-27-2009, 08:00 PM
 
Location: Sacramento, CA/Dover-Foxcroft, ME
1,816 posts, read 3,394,605 times
Reputation: 2897


angelo129 says, "I think they choose their victims, but I don't know what it is that makes some people particularly tasty."

I think black flies are attracted to humans because of what we eat. It may be that our indivual skin/pore odor is what makes them want one over another. And what NMLM says too.

Bydand says, "Best way to keep them off of you is to take a fresh Orange or other sweet smelling item and rub it all over somebody else in your group." I'll remember that one. Sure to work.

Here's a site I found bitingly interesting:

Maine Nature News - Some questions and answers about black flies in Maine (http://www.mainenature.org/blackfly/blackflyinfo.html - broken link)

........................................
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Old 05-28-2009, 03:56 AM
 
Location: Maine
6,631 posts, read 13,560,287 times
Reputation: 7381
Quote:
Originally Posted by RMoore007 View Post
Here's a site I found bitingly interesting:

Maine Nature News - Some questions and answers about black flies in Maine (http://www.mainenature.org/blackfly/blackflyinfo.html - broken link)

........................................
Thanks! MNN is mine. This week's report will be up later today. The top 20 searches bringing people to Maine Nature News this month are black flies.
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Old 05-28-2009, 05:00 AM
 
Location: Way South of the Volvo Line
2,788 posts, read 8,021,140 times
Reputation: 2846
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bydand View Post
Best way to keep them off of you is to take a fresh Orange or other sweet smelling item and rub it all over somebody else in your group. Doesn't win you any friends, but you get points for having chones and style.

Honestly it all depends on the year and the conditions. Some years they are enough to drive you crazy (last Spring in the Caribou/PI area was one of these), and other years they are not bad at all.
We find they like the dog better. So he makes an even better companion during blackfly season...canine bloodsucker bait.

Sorry, pooch.
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Old 05-28-2009, 06:03 AM
 
Location: Maine
6,631 posts, read 13,560,287 times
Reputation: 7381
This week's black fly report. It will pick up in another week or two as more people are out and about in the little beasts.

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