Is it just me, or does the black fly population seem EXTRA heavy this spring. I know we deal with it every year, and the amount of rain we have received certainly doesn't help, however, this is BAD! I could hardly even mow the lawn last night with my eyes open- those things get trapped in your eyelashes.

Before we get into the old Maine Black Fly Hat Trap, let's learn a little bit more about these useless things, shall we? I know I know, every creature has a purpose in the circle of life, I get it. But it's really hard to understand the purpose or benefit of black flies.

Did you know that black flies and mosquitoes actually have different breeding and egg laying styles? Yeah, I know, I didn't either. Mosquitoes like to lay there eggs in yucky stagnant water where everything is just kinda gross. Black flies on the other hand, like to lay their eggs in clean running water. Interesting huh?

According to the Farmer's Almanac, there are several different things you can do to try and repel these little annoyances.

First, they recommend keeping your skin protected. For example wearing long sleeved and legged pants and wearing light colors. As it turns out, black flies are attracted to dark colors. Who knew?

Next, pick up one of those hats that have the built in face gazebos. As luck would have it, black flies like to swarm and they also like carbon dioxide. Finally we understand why they like to be around your face. It's all humans exhale.

You can also try using vanilla extract, lavender and the extract from pine branches. You also want to avoid wearing anything sweet, like sweet smelling perfumes or body sprays. Yup, they're attracted to that, too.

Really wanna go hard? Turns out if you start eating garlic each day before you know you're going to be around black flies, your skin could begin to release a sulfur compound that also gives garlic its smell. Thanks Farmer's Almanac, but I think I'll go ahead and skip that one!

 

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