I’ve been playing a bit of a game lately. There is work being done along the 103 near Middlewood. They are working on a fairly long stretch, so they have to stop traffic for short periods. And seeing that we’re are right in the middle of black fly season, I have been using those stops to try to figure out how long it takes a swarm to find me.
Well, not me so much. My car. I’m not rolling my windows down. Those things are hungry. And there are lots of them.
Although blackflies and a bit strange. Once they notice they are inside, they tend to forget about bighting you and start concentrating on getting out. Unlike mosquitoes. The mosquito will continue on it’s mission to bight first even when it indoors. And especially late at night when you are trying to get to sleep. The mosquito will come up and whisper in your ear, while somehow managing to stay out of reach, just to drive you nuts.
The blackfly seems to want to get out. Although you can’t always depend on that, since there are a lot of different types of blackflies. But most seem to want to get out of any enclosed space. The idea of eating first, then making a getaway doesn’t seem to occur to them.
One that has left my wondering a bit is likely the fungus gnat. I have heard over the years that blackflies need running water to hatch, so why is it every time I start digging in my garden blackflies appear? There’s no running water, but as soon as you touch the soil, blackflies appear.
There are over 2200 different types of little black flies. One is the fungus gnat, which likes to live on soil. Since they don’t some with name tags, I figure that’s what attacks me in my garden.
But out on the highway, it seems weather plays a role. The other day, on a cool, cloudy morning, it took almost thirty seconds for enough blackflies to appear for me to call it a swarm. Today, a nice sunny warm morning, it was about ten seconds. Not that I can blame them, but they seem to like the sunshine.
But it does make me feel bad for those holding the signs along the side of the highway. Standing relatively still in a swarm on flies doesn’t seem like a whole lot of fun.
There area lot of products to help us keep the flies at bay. Hopefully, they have found one that works.
