another black fly question

[markv]

2nd week in June, high peaks area (Lake Colden, Algonquin): Is there any chance this year the flies will be gone by then?

 

[AdkWalrus]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say they'll be near their peak, unfortunately. I used to do summer camp in that area the last two weeks of June when I was a teenager. They were inescapable.

 

[Doc McPeak]

Every year is different. Last year on Colden, June 6th, there were none. They were gone for the most part by then. But it was a light year. Other years they have been horrible until after July 4th. You will also find them in different numbers at different altitudes, usually swarming from lower to higher, with the summits holding them the latest. Maybe this cold spell has included a frost or two in the mountains?

 

[Peakbagr]

My general guidelines in the ADKs are that the black flies worst from Memorial Day to the 4th of July. As Doc said, last year they were only pesky (in general). Depending on the snowpack and melt can often determine their ferocity. Catch a breezy, low humidity day, and you can forget its middle of the black fly season. Get a warm, humid day in late August, and it feels like June with the bugs.

With lots of standing water and wet woods, the mosquitos become an issue on damp, cloudy days. They also punch-in at dusk, when the black flies' shift is over.

And then, for my money, its the deer flies. The bad guys with the white wing spots that bite you thru a sweaty t-shirt.
The wet, humid Spring and Summer of 2004 and particularly 2005 were among the worst deer fly seasons I've even seen in the ADKs. On bushwhacks, it was not even that you had your 'own personal fly' the one that stays with you until you finally kill it. We had our own person swarms, with a small cloud of deer flies biting all day long....Ugh. Hate to say it, but give me black flies any time.

 

[1ADAM12]

For the last 5 years i have hiked the firdt weekend in June in the high peaks and really have not seen them as an issue. The last weekend in July last year they were horrible on Seymour

 

[Rob S]

For the last 5 years i have hiked the firdt weekend in June in the high peaks and really have not seen them as an issue.

Yup, similar experience here. Many years of staying in the High Peaks region during Memorial Day weekend and have never had a problem with black flies. I've gotten bit from late June to late July tho.

 

[MarkL]

Although they may tend to "burn off" once there's been some brutally hot weather, my observations agree with Doc McPeak's. They like to summer in the mountains. If it's warm on the summit you'd better hope there's a moderate to strong breeze, and steady at that.

... the mosquitos become an issue on damp, cloudy days. They also punch-in at dusk, when the black flies' shift is over.

And the deer flies are on-duty until well into dusk, so there's no break in the coverage. The cooler the evening/night, the fewer the mosquitos.

 

[DougPaul]

Although they may tend to "burn off" once there's been some brutally hot weather, my observations agree with Doc McPeak's. They like to summer in the mountains. If it's warm on the summit you'd better hope there's a moderate to strong breeze, and steady at that.

Black flies breed in cold clear flowing water (eg snowmelt). Once that is gone, they tend to disappear.

Mosquitoes breed in warm stagnent water. Thus they "arrive" later and are common until the mud puddles tend to dry up (eg late July and August).

A good hard frost (eg in September) kills them both.

Doug