Over the last couple of weeks, it has not escaped my notice that there seems to be a lot of horse flies and deer flies around. Too many, for my liking.
Horse flies are pretty annoying and they do manage to sneak up on you occasionally. Deer flies are a little lacking in the stealth department. I swear they just try to smack into you and hang on. And they don’t seem to be really fast fliers. I don’t think any of them were involved in giving lessons for the new Top Gun movie. When they buzz past your ears, it is entirely possible to just reach up and grab them.
I find this practice fairly satisfying. This little creature is trying to take a chunk out of my hide and I can just calmly reach up, grab him and toss him aside. For one brief second I know how King Kong felt swatting airplanes. Although the feeling of superiority is usually short lived. While I have been roaring and beating my chest, another one or two of his buddies have swopped in for a nibble on the back of my neck.
As much as I enjoy it, I tire of the fly catching game. And the dance you do to go along with it. Feet moving at a quick walk while your arms wave wildly around in all directions at the same time. I’m sure it looks impressive, but it does very little for the flies.
And these flies seem to just laugh at things that usually keep flies at bay. They just laugh at DEET and most other repellents. Years ago I did find one that kept them at bay for short periods of time, but it was very hard to find and eventually disappeared. It probably contained something that was deadly to flies and humans alike.
So what do you do about horse flies and deer flies? The dance seemed to be about it. But people have told me about dragonflies.
Apparently, the larger biting flies are scared of dragonflies. Dragonflies apparently look upon these flies as snack food. They like nothing better than sitting back by a lake with a big stack of horse flies to munch on.
So I purchased a dragonfly. There are a couple different styles you can find. One clips to your hat and is attached to a wire about a foot long, so it floats beside you at all times. It probably looks very realistic, but since I tend to do a bit of fishing, I had images to spending large amounts of time untangling my fishing line from the wings of my dragon fly. So I went with a model that is just a pin, like a broach.
In this case, the dragonfly will be attached to my hat and sit prominently where all incoming flies can notice. I don’t believe there is any further training involved. They just sit there and look scary. At least if you’re another fly.
I have no idea if it will work. But my dragonfly is on my hat. I’ll let you know how it goes.
