018 - Black Fly Season

You know about Spring, winter, summer, and autumn. But, do you know about the fifth season? Black Fly Season.

Transcript

Black Fly Season

Preview Segment 

Most of us learn about the seasons in kindergarten. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter are the four everybody knows. Here in the Adirondacks we enjoy at least one more season; black fly season. 

I’m afraid black flies are one of Mother Nature's designs that most people and many animals would like to do without. But in spite of how uncomfortable they make us, people have put up with them in order to live and play here in the beautiful ADK.

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast Intro - Ready to earn some extra credit? You are listening to ADKX-tra Credit, a podcast for students about the history of the Adirondack Mountains and the people that have lived, worked, and played here. The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, is located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State. 

CONTENT

I am not an entomologist or any other kind of expert on black flies or insects. This episode is all about how people interact with these pests. And by interacting I mean swatting, scratching, and waving. 

 In case you are not familiar with black flies let me tell you a little more about them. In some places they are called buffalo gnats or turkey gnats. 

Some people say that Black Fly Season lasts from Mothers Day to Fathers Day. That is just an approximation. What generally happens in the spring is that the months of snow finally come to an end. There’s a few days of warm, pleasant weather. Then you begin to notice a small insect buzzing around your eyes, mouth and nose. They are quite small and pretty easy to smash at this point. Don’t be deceived! In the next week those seemingly harmless bugs get  a little closer; they land on your arms, behind your ears, and start crawling into your hair. If the pleasant weather continues and the snow doesn’t come back the next thing you notice is a few bites. Black fly bites are noticeable by the little red dot that they leave behind. For some people that area swells and gets itchy like a mosquito bite. Usually there is some bleeding too. The reason black fly bites are itchy and make you bleed is because the black fly saliva has an anticoagulant. That means it stops your blood from scabbing right away. Not a lot, just enough to be noticable and kind of gross.

At the height of black fly season after just a minute or two outdoors you will be covered in little blops and trickles of blood. You will be scratching and flapping your arms in a desperate attempt to get them to leave you alone!

Good luck with that.

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... before we got through the black flies bit us so bad that the next day, if you had seen us you would have thought we had the smallpox, we were so covered with them.

That is an excerpt from a letter dated August 17, 1850. 

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For a really good account of a miserable encounter with these little pests read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Hatchet is a novel about a boy that gets stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash. I don’t want to give the story away, so I’ll just tell you that in chapter 4 when poor Brian wakes up after the crash, wet, scared and lost, his misery gets a downgrade when the black flies find him. That’s just the beginning of his battle to survive in a tough environment. It’s a super adventure story. 

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Don’t mix up black flies with house flies. A Black Fly is only about as big as a grain of rice, house flies are quite a bit bigger. While house flies are bothersome and will fly around your head annoying you, most of them don’t bite.  Black flies pretty much live to bite you. The female black fly lays 500-600 eggs a year. They need blood to lay more eggs. That’s why they are so persistent. 

They need clean, well-oxygenated water to survive. This is probably why when the spring is wet and warm Adirondack residents will predict a bad Black Fly season. Rainy weather with temperatures in the 60s and 70s is perfect breeding weather. 

You’re probably beginning to wonder how people have survived living here for so long! Well, they only last for a few weeks. Once the weather gets warmer and drier they begin to go away. Until next year. I’ve heard old-timers say that ‘once their legs turn white they will be gone in a week.’ Personally, I’m usually too busy waving my arms around to notice the color of their legs.

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This excerpt is from Nina H. Webb’s book Footsteps through the Adirondacks: The  Verplanck Colvin Story.

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Black flies were just as troublesome in 1882 as they are today. The seasoned woodsmen didn’t complain too loudly, but occasionally they were driven away from their work by swarms of what they called “hot-footed creatures,” The guides had fun watching the new untested men who came for short terms of duty in Colvin’s “army.” One poor lad described coming up from New York City to help identify and record the various fish populations in Blue Mountain Lake. He brought along a brand new head net, to protect himself from black fly bites. He put the net on and went on his first lake trip. He wore it for only one hour, by which time he reported that he had ‘caught most of them… inside the net.” In one quick disgusted heave he had thrown the net into the lake, and carried on in spite of the fact that his face and neck were raw and red. From then on the men let him use some of their potent tar oil, which was their only defense against the critters.

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As long as people have been in the area they have been battling the black fly. Usually unsuccessfully. Some of the repellents I’m going to tell you about are pretty strong and some are downright dangerous! So, these are not recommendations. Just information.

The ‘potent tar oil’ mentioned in the is probably pine tar oil. It's a thick, sticky substance with a very strong scent. Some other natural repellents are: cedar, peppermint, lemongrass, citronella, and eucalyptus. These are usually made into an oil for mixing.

That sounds pretty tame but in most of the old remedies the oils were mixed with things like turpentine, kerosene, or ammonia! I would not want to be sitting next to a campfire covered with something that had one of those as the main ingredient!

As you heard in the last Quote head nets were popular. They still are. You can buy hats with nets attached, even jackets with a net face coverings as part of the hood. And as the man in the quote found out they will work good as long as absolutely no bugs get inside. That’s the trick!

Another deterrent that has been advanced is clothing choice. Obviously long sleeves and long pants will help to keep your arms and legs from getting bit just because they are covered. Again that only works until one of them gets underneath. This method was probably easier long ago. People dressed much more conservatively. Women rarely had any exposed skin. It wasn’t considered ladylike, no matter how hot and uncomfortable it may have been. Clothing color is said to play a role too. It’s said that Black Flies stay away from orange, white, and yellow, and are attracted to blue, black, and green. 

TRANSITION - sounds

Like everyone else that lives in the Adirondacks I have my own black fly season routines to try to repel the little pests. It involves bug spray, essential oils, an orange hat, and some netting. But the most important thing I do; I find someone else to stand next to that smells sweet, no bug repellent, no hat, nothing. It won’t be long before they will make a nice breeze batting the black flies away. 

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast conclusion - Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future. If you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our website theadkx.org