Sozobe
I hear you. They are terrible this year. As much as I hate bug spray I've been using it since that West Nile is everywhere. That person you knew must have gone through hell for that week! The spray I use is called Muskol and it works great. Fortunately, if I am only outside between 11am and 3pm I don't have to use it since the sun it too hot for the buggers.
On that note, I'm off to work in my garden.
Yeah, I've been out at dusk too much lately -- baaaaaaaaaad time of day. Have to get some of that spray, thanks for the recommendation.
I have always found Muskol to be a good repellent, and damn the studies on the harmful effects of DEET.
My first experience with Beelzebub was picking up "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson on vinyl, and noticing that the cover was supposed to be a depiction of the Lord of the Flies. I like the album, but I hate flies of all sorts.
I have heard that not bathing, and not using deoderant, and covering yourself with mud works quite well. Personally, I prefer the stay inside the air-conditioned apartment and away from horses approach. Each to their own, I suppose. Being in an urban center, it's not so bad.
Cavfancier--
Bathing is ok--just don't use soap. Best of all, stop breathing. The biting critters zero in on carbon dioxide.
Montana--
Ripeness is all.
Think horseflies are bad? You can't even see the (appropriately called) no-see-ums. These are teeny tiny flying beasties that follow you in the house, and drive you bananas!
I figured out that it wasn't horseflies that were/are tormenting me. It's those flies with the black dots on the wings. They were flying so fast that I really couldn't see them, but I knew they where a fly since I could see them buzz in front of my face. I only know what it looks like because one followed me to the house earlier and it stopped and sat on the house for a few seconds, just long enough for me to see it. The Muskol is great for the mosquetos, but it doesn't repell those crazy funny looking flies. Anyone know what these things are? Looks like a regular fly,except it has black dotted wings.
I found an all natural product on the link that Butrflynet gave me which repells all types of flies which sounds pretty good. It's actuall made for horses, but since it's all natural I wrote to the company and asked if it was ok for human use. They responded saying it was perfectly safe as many people use it for themselves. Gotta get some of that stuff for sure.
Sozobe
I water my garden at dusk, so the spray is seriously needed for the mosquetos. Maybe that all natural stuff would work for them too. When I get it, I'll let you know.
For mosquetoes they say that taking vitamin B1 daily works great. Some say it works while others say it doesn't. I started taking it a few days ago and I'll keep you posted on that as well.
Cav
Not bathing is just way too drastic for sure, lol. When I lived in the city we didn't have all these pests such as horse flies, crazy black dot flies, etc..., but I still wouldn't give up the country for anything. There are always some obsticles no matter where we live. "Put'em up you flying trolls, LOL!"
Phoenix
Ahhhhhh, yes, they are either black flies or fruit flies. The black flies are the ones that bite. Pesky little buggers for sure.
It's B12, not B1. Can't vouch for that either, but that's the legend. Around here, the golfers tuck a sheet of fabric softener under the back of their hats to repel gnats. Don't know if that works on no-see-ums and flies or not.
Hi Roger
I actually talked to my pharmacist and he varified that it was B1. I couldn't find any left around here since people were buying it all out, so he told me to go with the B100 complex which has just as much B1 as the one sold. It also has B12 in there, so I guess I'm covered.
I just did some research on my evil flies and they are deer flies that look similar to horseflies which is why I was confused. After seeing one up close today I knew they weren't horseflies since horseflies don't act that way and are not even close to being as fast. I found some solutions in my research which I'm going to try out as soon as I have the supplies. I'll post the sites here for those who are interested.
Here's a good site with good pictures of the flies and excellent solutions. I'm going with the hat contraption and I don't care who laughes at me, LOL :-D
http://extlab7.entnem.ufl.edu/PestAlert/deerfly.htm
I guess these solutions don't work well for horseflies, but they were obviously not my problem in the first place.
Roger
Does this mean I can join the funny hat club? :-D
Send me your address, Montana, and I will send the infamous Florance of Arabia number.
