Late snow and black flies

[MichaelJ]

So what's going to happen? Will the snow and freezing temps kill off the first hatching of black flies? Or will they return with a vengeance come the warm temps later this week?

 

[Lefty E]

I vote for vengeance, and also deer flies will be troublesome soon....black flies bothersome at 230 PM on the Kanc, with a few deer flies trying to bite exposed skin (especially on the top of the head!!!!)..Lefty E

 

[Quietman]

A few buzzing around when I parked at the bottom of the Dublin Trail on Monadnock today, but very few on the mountain. Pretty amazing for late May.

 

[skiguy]

ya never know....but local knowledge has it they come in on Snowshoes and they leave on Snowshoes.

 

[TJsName]

So what's going to happen? Will the snow and freezing temps kill off the first hatching of black flies? Or will they return with a vengeance come the warm temps later this week?

I think the late freeze would help mitigate the problem, at least for a few days. I would suspect the freezing temps killed many adult females, but there are still larvae developing and eggs waiting to hatch. It might take a few days for streams to warm back up enough for the process to restart in places where it snowed. Of course, black flies can travel pretty far, so if it was warm enough in the valley, they can always fly to places where it was colder. I'd still bring the bug spray.

 

[TCD]

At least twice in past years I have seen a late freeze result in an interesting stratification of the black fly population. Flies at low elevations, that had already hatched, were killed, but flies higher up, that were safely in the egg, were not affected. Later in the season, the black flies were very few in the valleys, but became much worse as you climbed higher. I don't know if it got cold enough to do that this time. It got to 28F at Saranac Lake airport last night; 31F at Glens Falls...maybe...

 

[Remix]

At least twice in past years I have seen a late freeze result in an interesting stratification of the black fly population. Flies at low elevations, that had already hatched, were killed, but flies higher up, that were safely in the egg, were not affected. Later in the season, the black flies were very few in the valleys, but became much worse as you climbed higher. I don't know if it got cold enough to do that this time. It got to 28F at Saranac Lake airport last night; 31F at Glens Falls...maybe...

Well I was in North Adams along the Deerfield River, and was encapsulated in a dense swarm....no bites though, just ear canals, eyelids, and the usual inhalation of a few.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

They were back today below 3K. Did a Zealand/Bond traverse, from the north. The last 6 miles the only way you could avoid them was to keep moving. If you stopped, they swarmed.