Backyard Update: Lark's Haven May 07, 2017

Caroline and Penny enjoy the screen house!

Caroline and Mike get the screen house up just in time for blackfly season in Maine.

We have met the enemy, and she is the blackfly. She is a mindless, merciless eating machine, and what she wants to eat is you. What she lacks in physical heft is more than offset by her numbers. She and her sisters — for the biters are all female — attack in ferocious, ruthless, maddening swarms. They will turn you into a bloody, itchy, swollen mess if they don’t drive you crazy first. It is not enough to meet your enemy. You must also know her. Know her, and you might stand a chance.

Blackfly Basics

A member of the insect family Simuliidae, the blackfly is a small hump-backed fly barely one eighth of an inch long. Roughly forty species live in Maine, but only a handful of them bite humans. Females seek a blood meal to nourish their developing eggs, which they lay by the hundreds in fast-moving creeks and rivers. Males are placid, feeding only on the nectar of flowering plants. Do not, however, give the guys a pass as you assign blame for the misery inflicted upon your flesh. They breed with the blood-thirsty females, after all, and that creates blood-thirsty female babies.

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