Deer flies: how to deal with them?

Well, it has been a somewhat buggy June. Whenever it warms up, there have been lots of mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies where I have hiked. Mosquitoes and black flies can be effectively dealt with using bug spray, long sleeves/pants, head nets, cigars and many other means. What I have not been able to figure out is an effective way to deal with the dreaded deer fly, which appear to be out in force this year.

In my experience, DEET doesn't affect them. Trying to kill them has a low success rate, at least for me. Wearing a hat works for a while, until they decide that hitching a ride on it will not get them fed. That's when they dive down on your back and bite you through the shirt or start making loud, high speed circling runs before landing on the back of your neck.

The absolute worst is when you have three or four dive bombing you at the same time. In that case, the noise and the sight is clearly more annoying than the bite.

Does anyone have any suggestions how to deal with these vicious creatures?

Thanks, Marty

Great question, and I'll be interested to see if anyone has a way of dealing with them, too, because they are unbelievably annoying creatures.

The worst experience I ever had with biting bugs was with deer flies. I was fishing from a canoe with a friend on a small remote river when we came into this one area where it was like a breeding grounds for deer flies or something. The air was completely saturated with literally thousands of them, and they attacked any and every square inch of exposed skin on our bodies. They even latched onto our fingers as we were reeling our lines in. Despite dousing ourselves with whatever bug dope we had, it didn't make a difference. The only thing we could do was paddle like hell and get out of that area. As soon as we were a couple hundred yards from that spot and out of that swarm, things got okay again. BTW, the river I'm speaking of is called the Deer River, and it's in St Lawrence County. Until that day, I thought it had been named that for deer of the 4-legged variety. I don't mind getting bit by a few deer flies once in a while, but that was crazy!

One solution I've found that works for deer flies is to run full speed down the trail, then turn around (now running backwards) and killing them as they try to keep up with me.

The only other way is to wait until they land on my head, then smack them.

Deer flies are the worst. DEET doesn't faze them; their bite is painful like maybe 50% of a bee sting; and they're much faster than balck flies and mosquitoes, and they know how to draft (I've gotten a back full of df bites while road biking).

I don't have any good answers except these:

Avoid where they are (often sandy areas are bad; I don't know why).

Be patient. jfb is right, the best place to kill them is on your head. I like to wait until they get kind of "into" my hair. Then I can mush them up in the hair and kill them reliably, rather than banging myself in the head trying to swat them too soon.

I really hate those things!

I have found a $2 bug net from walmart keeps them away from your face, but that just leaves your whole body a target. I dont understand the whole going around your head thing, I mean, arent they just expending extra energy doing that, or is it a way of distracting you before they go in for the kill?

I killed a few on the back of my neck this weekend, and I have even killed them mid-air with my hands (have to be fast for that). I have found some non-deet stuff that seems to keep them away, but it doesn't work for mosquitos... It has a citrusy smell. Too bad there isnt a kill-all.

-percious

I wish I had an answer as well. One thing I do no is, dragonflies eat deer flies. A few years ago I was fishing on a pond. While fishing I could see a bunch of dragonflies flying erratically. I paddled over to investigate and what I saw was perhaps the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. The dragon flies we dive-bombing the deer flies and snagging them out of the air. If you can find a way to pack a couple hundred dragonflies then maybe the will control the deerflies.

Voice Over Now more than ever, they must rely on the skills they have learnt from a lifetime's hunting. (tense music, as they worm their way forward) Hank gauges the wind. (shot of Hank doing complicated wind gauging biz.) Roy examines the mosquito's spoor. (shot of Roy examining the ground intently) Then ... (Roy fires a bazooka. Hank fires off a machine gun; a series of almighty explosions in the small patch of field; the gunfire stops and the smoke begins to clear) It's a success. The mosquito now is dead. (Hank and Roy approach the scorched and blackened patch in the field) But Roy must make sure. (Roy points machine gun at head of mosquito and fires off another few rounds)
Roy There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded mosquito.
Voice Over But the hunt is not over. With well practised skill Hank skins the mosquito. (Hank produces an enormous curved knife and begins to start skinning the tiny mosquito) The wings of a fully grown male mosquito can in fact fetch anything up to point eight of a penny on the open market. (shot of them walking, carrying weapons) The long day is over and it's back to base camp for a night's rest. (inside villa; Hank is cleaning bazooka) Here, surrounded by their trophies Roy and Hank prepare for a much tougher ordeal - a moth hunt.
Hank Well, I follow the moth in the helicopter to lure it away from the flowers, and then Roy comes along in the Lockheed Starfighter and attacks it with air-to-air missiles.
Roy A lot of people have asked us why we don't use fly spray. Well, where's the sport in that?

I just read last night an excerpt from a Homeopathic Medical Journal in 1965, Homeopathic Staphasagria 3x was used 2hr before entering the woods. Test subjects reported that they did not get bit horse flies, deer flies, mosquitoes, chiggers etc. The report did not mention black flies. They were in different areas, one of the regions tested was the Poconos. I forgot his test population number but his success rate was pretty high. I will get more facts and post them. I thought of trying this out.

OK, I may get laughed at, but here's the only solution that I've found. It dosen't work when there are swarms, but I have been known to bring a small badminton type racquet with me on my noon hikes. Works best on horse flies, but if I push the strings close together in the middle, it will disable deer flies too. So far, no one has seen me using this method of insect control, so I don't know if I would get laughed at or not. But it is effective when there are a few flies that just won't go away.

And it is much safer than the running backward method, even though I've come close to wacking myself in the head with a wild swing.

I've seen people put fly tape on their hats and catch dozens. My favorite for that one annoying one the keeps circling is to put both hands over one's head. They seem to go to the highest point. When it lands on one hand I use the other to kill it. Certainly not effective if being swarmed. Nasty creatures!

I killed 239 of them this weekend. I haven't been able to scrub the blood and wing scraps from my hands yet, even tried a brillo pad...

The only that stops them is winter.

I actually saw one of THESE in a local hardware store. I was tempted...

Bob

Rik said:

... They seem to go to the highest point ...

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I used to hike with a long feather sticking up from my hat. The flies would circle the feather rather than my head. I haven't done that in a while but then I usually miss fly season somehow.

I used to hike with a long feather sticking up from my hat. The flies would circle the feather rather than my head. I haven't done that in a while but then I usually miss fly season somehow.

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I've seen this done with a fern as well.

HikerBob said:

I actually saw one of THESE in a local hardware store. I was tempted...

Bob

Click to expand...

And here I am thinking that I could copyright my idea for "Fly Racquets", only to see that someone's already cornered the market!

Garlic...maybe!

I've been told if you eat lots of garlic that when you start to sweat the bugs do not like the way you smell and therefore they stay away. Not sure if there's any truth to this though.

-MEB

Canoe paddle, trekking pole...

These have worked for me. I have been in the bow of a canoe on the Bog River and there were literally(well it seemed it) thousands of Deer Flies swarming. The guy in the stern paddled, and i held the paddle in the air. Kept 'em off us.

Backpacking, i have had success with a trekking pole in the air sticking out of my backpack. Had to duck for low lying trees occasionally, but again, it helped. Also hiking with someone taller than you...

I ran the Lake Placid Marathon a few weeks back - from Mirror Lake to the ski jumps, out that road along the AuSable(Riverview or something like that, toward rt. 86) toward Whiteface and back - twice - and the deerflies were bad along the river. And 23 miles out, trying to outrun them is impossible. Blackflies were a non-issue however. Maybe the heat kept them down?

And those "electric rackets"? They are awesome. If you are in to torturing bugs. One warning - don't touch the "strings". You won't do it twice. Fun to chase your brother-in-law around with tho.

marty said:

The absolute worst is when you have three or four dive bombing you at the same time. In that case, the noise and the sight is clearly more annoying than the bite.

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Right there you have stated the way to ease the worst of it... get a mental attitude that simple buzzing around your hat is not going to annoy you and you're half way there. You can go mad if you let little critters affect your mind. To keep moving is key, avoid frequent or prolonged stops.

Beyond that, yes, they do go for the highest point around (your head). There are a couple of ways to deal with that... wearing a fern stuck high into your hat is one. At short rest stops you can also sidle up to a nearby (perferably tall) hiking friend for a brief chat about the weather, and then slowly slink down to lower ground as you ease away. Amazingly, the deer flies will have left your vicinity (but not for long).

Many times I am carrying a canoe overhead while on the trail, a black Hornbeck. I once worried that the flies would trap themselves around my head inside, but not so... instead they all congregate to the highest point on the outside, on top of the canoe as they bang into the bottom side. A canoe overhead is better protection than DEET.

Of course it helps also to wear a loosely fitting long sleeve shirt of tightly woven nylon, the kind with an inner net mesh over the shoulders helps to keep them from biting through. A bandana around the back of your neck completes the picture.

On my daily 4 mile power walks these past few mornings I've been attacked at different points. I wonder if they are territorial and I'm dealing with different deer flies or the same ones. I had about 8 madly circling my head at one point but after a quarter mile they were gone only to be replaced by 2 others. Time to dust off the bike I guess.

HikerBob said:

I actually saw one of THESE in a local hardware store. I was tempted...

Bob

Click to expand...

I have one of those. They're a hell of a lot of fun. Good for shocking your friends as well.

edit - Oops. I see I was late with this info.