The Little Terrors!

Around here lately, a lot of folks have been whining about the amount of deer flies that are in their yards.  Those, topped with the mosquitoes, seem to give them quite a few hearty bites whenever they venture outside.  These folks have called a halt to their picnics and that will never do!  I get calls almost daily asking me what can be done about these pests.  Everyone wants some "magic herbal remedy" to rid their yards of the flying, biting pests.  I can recommend a few things but, to be honest, nothing is going to ever fully get rid of the little rascals.  Some will always be around.

All of these calls have gotten me to thinking.   Living on the Bayou, there are a ton of both mosquitoes and deer flies and, yet, I rarely get bitten by the deer flies.  During the summer months, I maybe get three or four bites.  This seems to be hardly any compared to what other folks are claiming to encounter.  Now, the question..why?  Why do I not get more bites when I live where there are masses of the critters?  Poor Mark is literally attacked whenever he heads out the door.  If we are out hiking side by side, he will have a dozen or more deer flies buzzing about his head.  His white tee shirt will be dotted with those that are brave enough to land.  (These critters can and do bite right through cloth!)  I, on the other hand, may have one darting about my head.  Does my blood just taste bad?

All those tiny dots are deer flies that are just waiting to dine upon the blood of some hapless creature!

Late this evening, I headed to the pier.  Either I was intensely brave or highly stupid as the marsh was alive with deer flies.  They hovered just above the marsh as they waited for some hapless creature (namely me) to walk through the area. Then supper would be served!  I stared at the insects...did I really want to waltz right through the midst of them?  Sure..why not?  Then a thought hit me!  I need to photograph the critters on the wing!  This could prove interesting!  I headed onto the pier and into a swarm of biting insects.  Once I was in the middle of them, I stood still as I tried to focus the camera on the darting bugs.  This was much harder than I thought!  Be still, Critters!  That was not happening any time soon, I could tell.  Then I noticed something..no bites!  Yep..no bites.  As matter of fact, as I stood there, the flies backed away from me.  Hmmm?   Could this be the answer?  Perhaps all of that flailing and swatting, sends the deer flies into a frenzy.  I waved my arms.  Yep..deer flies came from all angles!  I was being attacked by hoards of the biting insects!  Still..be still!  After a few minutes, the critters settled back into their normal hovering flight patterns.  Some even lighted on nearby bushes.  I got my picture and no bites.  I tried this several more times with the same results.  Obviously, these critters have motion detectors!  Since I walk calmly and quietly about the Bayou, the bugs are not attracted to me. There is always that buzzing, biting, critter that causes most folks to smack themselves silly.   To me, this is the worst thing you can do..smack yourself.  More oft than not, you will miss the critter and just give yourself a good whack.  That whack not only smarts a bit, it causes more deer flies to attack.  They seem to be drawn to commotion and I guess they figure that we, as humans, don't have very good aim.  Their idea of bringing on the masses to confuse the human works well.

So there you have it folks!  The answer to avoiding being bitten by deer flies...Don't flail about trying to kill them!  The more you swat at them, the more they attack!  Either that..or my blood tastes terrible!  (During all of this, I did learn that it is really difficult to photograph tiny critters that move with lightning speed!)