Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on May 12, 2024, 10:25:42 AM
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So I guess stupid fly season is starting here with the warm weather (we're hitting the 80s now) coming in. While being attacked by flies on patrol this morning, I got to thinking about how much different the fly behavior is here in Idaho versus back in CA.
In CA, while somewhat annoying, the flies would take the hint after you swatted at them a few times and go away for a while. When they did try to land on you, it always seemed like they were sneaky about it, trying to lightly land on you without you noticing it. Here in Idaho, they are little %$&*# bastards. It's like they're Kamikaze flies. They let you know when they land on you, and when you swat them away, they come back like a bullet out of a rifle and smack into you. And not just anywhere - always in the head area, with ears and eyes being favorite targets.
I really hate Idaho flies and cannot wait for the freezing weather to come back. What are the flies like in your state?
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Here in Virginia we have house flies, which are really annoying, but not really obnoxious.
We also have gnats on the east coast, which are REALLY annoying. They're tiny, swarm around your face, and try to get in your mouth and nose and eyes.
We also have horse flies, which are like house flies but a LOT larger. And a LOT more obnoxious. And they bite. And when they bite, it hurts like HELL. Fortunately they are more in the country and not in urban areas.
In Pennsylvania we had all of the above, but we also had something called pine flies. Not sure if they were actually pine flies or not, but when they bit? It was like an mini nuke going off at the site of the bite. INCREDIBLY painful.
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Here in Virginia we have house flies, which are really annoying, but not really obnoxious.
We also have gnats on the east coast, which are REALLY annoying. They're tiny, swarm around your face, and try to get in your mouth and nose and eyes.
We also have horse flies, which are like house flies but a LOT larger. And a LOT more obnoxious. And they bite. And when they bite, it hurts like HELL. Fortunately they are more in the country and not in urban areas.
Pretty much the same here. Houseflies all over, horseflies normally in the country, and down below the “fall line”, a line demarcating about a 1/3 of the state from the rest of it, gnats that can range from extremely annoying swarm to flying chainsaws.
When I was living at the coast I couldn’t walk from my porch to my truck without getting eaten alive by the little *expletive deleted*ing vampire gnats. I went through an extreme amount of DEET when I lived there to fend off the mosquitos and gnats.
I’m very happy to stay in my upstate part of SC well above the fall line (also known as the gnat line).
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We have our usual insects but this year the biting gnats (I call them buffalo gnats) are worse than usual. They are like small flies or large gnats.
What’s worse is the damn birds. For almost 2 months we have had birds just beating themselves against the windows. Started with cardinals on the big greatroom windows but has now involved at least 3 different species and it’s horrible, starting at first light and going all day. And involving windows on 3 sides of the house. Never had anything like it and been here since 1997.
Our house has 49 windows, some quite large, and we have a guy that comes to clean them 2x per year. We’ve been holding him off because there is no point cleaning glass while birds are attacking it.
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Mostly house flies down here. There are other flies including horse flies, but I haven't been bothered by them here. The A-Salt Rifle does a good job on the house flies.
https://www.amazon.com/BUG-A-SALT-3-0-Yellow/dp/B089CDCCR1/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=19IOQ79DOMJZW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.oKJrcTYPWisG0h-7ra8SfmxslvMYmusdVE6OY0iSYINXRyIdP1SR9RxRqfwijZxtLq6XnV0ahYtXa_EEElmovzgt09R0vg6nEC7oc5-nVormX6DZYeXihlJf-BKqgzBVccMIwQGtFvKQC8Ts1A-Zf-Vzl0T3vna6h9pJyypKDzM58sSBjXtvJdGlhvfM3E88EKd9ogsbvpa94Ip_yEERiUVs_0LAU6zxgoyOHvC7jtMIklm1d3VR4jC5jpG2AhV9dFY20Il4z64CrNIezTS-vWFwT-KL9gWt0sdGnRuYYnA.ULt2CJvzpKdniwPpTdG1XRNA4tGigSufybuGCpcH5LA&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+salt+rifle+fly+gun&qid=1715554877&sprefix=a+salt%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
You can always get a hat like this. If it works for mosquitos, it should work for flies also.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D1JGKSK/?coliid=I2AOXZA2KD1XNP&colid=3TDS158L20Y8K&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it
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You can always get a hat like this. If it works for mosquitos, it should work for flies also.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D1JGKSK/?coliid=I2AOXZA2KD1XNP&colid=3TDS158L20Y8K&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it
I've got one similar to that, which I break out for irrigating the pastures during the annual mosquito infestation, which is also probably just a couple of weeks away. :mad:
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"You can always get a hat like this. If it works for mosquitos, it should work for flies also.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D1JGKSK/?coliid=I2AOXZA2KD1XNP&colid=3TDS158L20Y8K&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it"
We used to have common brown mosquitos in Northern Virginia. Then, about 20-25 years ago, the Asian tiger mosquito started showing up and quickly displaced the brown mosquito.
The browns were annoying... the tiger mosquitos are predators and are relentless.
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FL, being a swamp with lots of water and stuff to eat, has a vast, almost incomprehensible, array of annoying flying insects.
In addition to the already mentioned gnats, house flies, horse flies, and mosquitos we have a particularly aggressive version of a biting yellow fly that makes a horse fly bite pale. Those little bastards are also seemingly immune to all repellants and insecticides once grown. We also have tiny little biting flies called No-See-Ums, which, as the name implies, are hard to see but love to swarm anyone that is hot and breathing hard (they like CO2).
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For anyone unfamiliar with Deer Fly…
They are annoying as hades, almost as big as an horse fly, and will take a very painful bite out of you.
I hate them. Repellent sprays work only marginally.