Comments on: Dealing With Deer Flies on the Run: A Bit of Yankee Ingenuity

By: s

Sun, 24 Apr 2016 22:35:20 +0000

In reply to Reekavok. Get over yourself, Bruce.

By: Mildred Twitchell

Mildred Twitchell — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 06:50:11 +0000

Any thick oil will trap these flies and works very well on the early spring black flies in Maine. We used white hard hats when logging and coated them with mineral oil. Blue might have worked better. I have no idea as I was taught the trick with white hard hats. Without this trick, cutting and peeling softwood trees was almost impossible without getting eaten alive.

By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to Bob (Downtown Runner).

Hmm...maybe you can fashion a tech shirt out of bounce fabric - that would
be stylish!
Pete

By: Bob (Downtown Runner)

Bob (Downtown Runner) — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don't know what kind of flies we have here in NJ but I recently learned something about repelling them. My wife told me she read that you can put one of those fabric softener sheets (like Bounce) that you normally put in the dryer in your pocket. The claim was that they repel mosquitoes and other bugs.

The week before the walk I scouted out the trail by myself. There were lots of some kind of fly bugging me. This was without any repellent.

Then, at the actual event, at the same time of day a week later, all 16 of us put a Bounce sheet in our pocket. No one had any problems with any kind of flying critters. It was great.

But of course, we didn't get to take any dead bugs home with us on a cute hat......

By: JZ

JZ — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Provides a yummy snack to boot.

By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to Ken Skier.

Ken - I think I linked Tanglefoot to a product page? Maybe I forgot to.
Pete

By: Ken Skier

Ken Skier — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I love it! But I have 2 questions: Where does one buy this "Tanglefoot"...? And how did your friend attach the cup to his hat?

By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to Reekavok.

Sorry - fixed the attribution. The image was served up by the Zemanta plugin
that interfaces with Blogger, and the attribution that was provided by
Zemanta was Wikipedia. My error for not looking further into the source.

Pete

By: Reekavok

Reekavok — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You're using my image of a deer fly without proper attribution. Please either attribute the photo within the requirements of the Creative Commons license, or remove it. Thank you,
Bruce Marlin
www.cirrusimage.com

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That is hilarious!

By: Dan (Milan, NH)

Dan (Milan, NH) — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice hat! I'm also curious to hear what his wife said. I'm pretty sure I know what my 4 year old would say... :)

I know them too well. We grow them in plenty up here in Milan! Another trick that works (at low speeds) is to run backward and swat. On a 6 mile run in July I made the mistake of taking this one trail/forest road that runs along the side of the Upper Ammonousuc River. It's a perfect breeding ground. I knew I was in trouble when I heard the familiar buzzing of deer flies. It seemed louder than normal so I turned around and saw a swarm of literally 150 circling my head. I chose Option B: ran faster! One did manage to land on my arm and started chewing under my iPod.
As if the black flies weren't bad enough. Ah, summers in New England!