Bugs! (Orono: university, live in, stats)

[NewDad]

How do you guys and gals up there deal with the black flies? I've heard horror stories but I've never experienced black flies before.

I'm from the south so I know how bad mosquitoes can be here especially in the wetland areas.

Could some of you outdoorspersons enlighten me on the black fly scoop? What are the worst months and how do you deal with them while hiking and such? Are they really that bad?

Thanks

[CapeCodder]

Originally Posted by NewDad

How do you guys and gals up there deal with the black flies? I've heard horror stories but I've never experienced black flies before.

I'm from the south so I know how bad mosquitoes can be here especially in the wetland areas.

Could some of you outdoorspersons enlighten me on the black fly scoop? What are the worst months and how do you deal with them while hiking and such? Are they really that bad?

Thanks

Ok...I asked this question before I moved here too. If you search my name it'll be under a thread called something like "where are the black flies"...it's a really informative thread.
I found the mosquitoes far worse here. I live in a rural wooded area.

Good luck to you!

[Boomerang]

I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice on dealing with this subject
Black flies/ "mingies", mosquitoes, and deer flies (my particular horror) all bite pretty hard.

For my part, I've tried the natural formulas, and also used Skin-So-Soft. But hands down, if I want to go out in the woods for any length of time with impunity, it's DEET all the way for me. I hate putting oily substances on my skin, so I only apply or spray it on face, ears, neck and hands, and then also spray it on a hat, long-sleeved shirt, and socks that I'll be wearing. In hot weather it has to go directly onto all exposed skin of course.


On livestock, I found that the so-called 7 day and 14 day formulas had to be applied daily for best results.

[Bydand]

Some years the black flies will drive you crazy, while other years their numbers are WAY down. Last year was one of those years we hardly had any up in this area. Agree with the advice that the only thing that really helps is DEET. Ben's 100% is the ONLY stuff I buy. Lotion, not spray. I think the highest you can get a spray is 45-50% DEET which is nothing more than an advertisement to the little devils that there is something that doesn't want them to dine. I have seen it where you can tell where the animals and people you are out with are located in a clear cut by the black cloud hovering in the air.

I've lived in the South, and have been in the swamps of Mississippi and Louisiana and the mosquitoes I have seen are nothing compared to a bad year for the black flies. The worse month up here tends to be June, into July some years, but they are around all summer, just not as bad later in the year as they are in the Spring/Early Summer.

[Maine Writer]

Maine Nature News gets more hits because of black flies than anything else. Not moose or the ocean, black flies. We have ratings from 1 to 3 telling people how bad they are in parts of the state. People email me to ask "how are they today?" People email me to complain when there isn't a current report. I pulled up today's stats. At noon black flies are the most popular search at 5.4%. It's January 3!

Black fly info (http://www.mainenature.org/blackfly/blackflyinfo.html - broken link)

[Submariner]

I have tried smoking a pipe.

I have used 99% DEET.

I have used essential oils. I have used skin-so-soft.

I have used four of the electronic ultra-sonic noise makers.

I have used 'bug dope'.

I have worn the hood thing.

When black fly are thick, they are thick, and I have not seen anything or combination of things that will change how thick they are.

We have a set of neighbors who moved here last year, they work for the Orono University. He is a professor of biology and she is a entomologist [she studies bugs]. I have spoken with them on multiple occasions about the skeeters and black fly.

Permethrin is about the best bug killer.

Though they are testing an essential oil from tomato vines now.

Otherwise it appears that combining: wearing a mosquito hood, smoking a pipe, wearing DEET, soaking your clothes in the strongest home-made essential oil so strong that it brings tears to your eyes. and at least three of the electronic ultra-sonic noise makers. And over-all the thick cloud of bugs on you should be slightly less thick, than on anyone else near you.

[Bydand]

I rub an orange on my brother and make him stand about 3 feet away from me, works well.

[Eastport4me]

That is hilarious Friendly Yeti!!

[elston]

Are black flies as much a problem or annoyance in the cities as they are out in the county?

I understand that the only good thing about black flies is that in their larva stage, they are the major food supply for trout.

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by elston

Are black flies as much a problem or annoyance in the cities as they are out in the county?

No - it seems pollution and crowding is just as distasteful to them as it is to us.
When the flies are at their worst, I can still go on walks in-town without much bother, while venturing out back of my own place in the fields/woods requires full anti-fly defenses if I don't want to end up as a pile of white bones, picked clean