Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

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Daniel D Dye
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Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Daniel D Dye »

These are at the worst I've seen in many years...Pure misery!!

ImageYellow Fly (Diachlorus ferrugatus) by Daniel D Dye II, on Flickr

ImageDeer Fly (Chrysops pikei) by Daniel D Dye II, on Flickr
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soulsurvivor
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by soulsurvivor »

I could barely take a picture of the mud turtle I found when I was out road cruising yesterday. As soon as I got out of the car, they were landing on my arms and pelting me in the back of the head. Even tonight at dusk while I was pooper-scoopin the backyard, they were buzzing around me. Infuriating!
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by BillMcGighan »

Pics are superb, as always. It's nice to see the enemy up close.

So, I take it you folks are having an exceptionally bad year of them????

The Deer Flies are just getting started up here.




Rewrite of mythology:
Bellerophon begins riding Pegasus to the top of Mt. Olympus to enter the world of the gods. Zeus gets mad and sends Diachlorus to bite Pegasus, throwing Bellerophon back to earth.

It could happen. :roll: :roll: :lol:
Carl D. May
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Carl D. May »

Yellow flies have ruined many a hike for me. This is what my hand looked like after just about 20 minutes back in June of 2010. Normally you would see that my knuckles stick way up and my fingers are nowhere near this fat.

Image

I was walking the river edge at Ft. Gadsden and the flies were all over my hands, elbows and ears. My elbows were actually bleeding from the things! But the itching that comes later is the worst part.
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ScottAL
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by ScottAL »

Yeah, I hate those things. They can be unbelievably bad in north Fla and south Ala.
They can certainly ruin a good day in the field.

I don't know what I hate more when they're really bad:

Deer Flies/Yellow Flies
Mosquitos
No-seeums/Sand Gnats
Black Flies

Years ago in upstate New York I got into clouds of Black Flies that just might be the worst bug misery I've ever had to deal with.
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Noah M
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Noah M »

Anything that buzzes and bites in significant enough quantities is bad. The spectrum runs from tolerable to annoying to unbearable, regardless of the culprit.
ncphinsfan13
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by ncphinsfan13 »

This is how I deal with them...


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Jimi
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Jimi »

I don't know what I hate more when they're really bad:

Deer Flies/Yellow Flies
Mosquitos
No-seeums/Sand Gnats
Black Flies
For me, it's definitely gnats. The bigger the bug, the less it bugs me - because more, or more effective, countermeasures exist.

Don't get all slap-happy out there, ha ha.

cheers,
Jimi
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mtratcliffe
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by mtratcliffe »

I call them deerflies - are we talking about the same bug? Either way, I've had a few bite me in the past two weeks. One was in a swampy area and it would not stop hounding me. I had to run at a good speed for a few hundred feet before I felt safe. I swear these things are stalkers!
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Daniel D Dye
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Daniel D Dye »

Thanks for the comments, guys. :lol:

Here's a little article I wrote about them for our website at work, if you're interested.
http://www.flapest.com/deer-and-yellow-flies
Carl D. May
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Carl D. May »

Daniel D Dye wrote:Thanks for the comments, guys. :lol:

Here's a little article I wrote about them for our website at work, if you're interested.
http://www.flapest.com/deer-and-yellow-flies
Nice little article. So they are two different species then? Now I wonder which is worse...?
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Daniel D Dye
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Daniel D Dye »

They're both very aggravating, but I'm going to say the Yellow Fly (Diachlorus ferrugatus) hurts the most...That's from personal experience, I might add. :lol:
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pete
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by pete »

I hate deer flies and the like!! I saw a kid two years ago with a doubled over strip of blue duct tape around his hat. It was was covered with stuck deer flies. Apparently the like blue and since they seem to dive bomb heads first, they hit the tape and get stuck. I tried it last year and it really seemed to help. Still got bit a ton, but there were at least a hundred flies stuck to my hat. Far more than I could have squished :D a little revenge is better than none!

Those are stunning pictures as always!
simus343
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by simus343 »

I haven't had much issue with them this year except one day at work while checking drift fence near a water branch. But that isn't to say they won't start.

Now last year when I took a trip to Ochlocknee State Forest and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge the yellow flies were BAD. Previously I was able to ignore them without a problem, until I heard that they are not in fact drinking fluids from you when they bite, but are actually laying eggs. That sent me into and has kept me in a swatting frenzy. I have found out that a high citrus, onion, and garlic intake works to keep them off when I start to sweat. Also long pants and a light-weight long shirt, similar to that type that fishermen seem to wear all the time (has mesh-like holes in arm pits to allow to ventilate) and a bug-net head piece work to keep stuff off of everywhere except your hands and face right around the eyes - maybe some large sun glasses can help here ;).
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Daniel D Dye
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by Daniel D Dye »

simus343 wrote:Previously I was able to ignore them without a problem, until I heard that they are not in fact drinking fluids from you when they bite, but are actually laying eggs. That sent me into and has kept me in a swatting frenzy.
That's too funny! Who did you hear that from?
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Are Vampire Flies Ruining Your Herping?

Post by BillMcGighan »

simus343
Previously I was able to ignore them without a problem, until I heard that they are not in fact drinking fluids from you when they bite, but are actually laying eggs. That sent me into and has kept me in a swatting frenzy. I have found out that a high citrus, onion, and garlic intake works to keep them off when I start to sweat. Also long pants and a light-weight long shirt, similar to that type that fishermen seem to wear all the time (has mesh-like holes in arm pits to allow to ventilate) and a bug-net head piece work to keep stuff off of everywhere except your hands and face right around the eyes - maybe some large sun glasses can help here ;).
:thumb: You are absolutely right and, for the same reason when in Florida, you should be careful of the earwigs. Your same prevention works if you just add softly clucking like a chicken when exposed. ;)
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