Pine grosbeak pink bird, ducks, red fox, white-tailed dears, eastern chipmunk, red squirrels, grey squirrels, wild turkeys, coon cat, owls, pileated woodpeakers, seagulls, eagles and now hummingbirds are the few wild encounters of my run and hikes during these long days of quarantaine.
But 2 weeks ago I met the most horrible creature ever: the blakfly, from the Simuliidae family. And I am not anymore wondering why the houses are all equipped with “mosquitos” nets…
These flies just aren’t fly, they are small little butchers, “merciless eating machine” (Downeast.com*). They are very small – almost invisible – grey-black in color, “turning you into a bloody, itchy, swollen mess if they don’t drive you crazy first”. Females will bite you to take the blood they need to nourish their eggs, but they smartly first anesthetize the area – so you don’t know they are here – , then inject an anticoagulant so they can sample as much of your blood as they wish. Their salive is unfortunately a kind of allergen – so you can remember them few hours later….
It takes only few seconds for them to smell the carbon dioxide you exhile, so that they can spot you and attack.
The only good things are that they do not carry diseases and are actually the sign of good water quality. That’s good to know, because I am drinking tap water!
I heard that it generally lasts only one generation, so they are alive from Mother’s day to Father’s day… when is Father’s day in the US???
*Excellent article by Virginia M. Wright, Dowm East, May 2012. https://downeast.com/travel-outdoors/blackfly-survival-guide/
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