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#161549 - 01/06/09 04:47 AM What is worse in your opinion?
scafool Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 12/18/08
Posts: 1534
Loc: Muskoka
Black flies, or Snow flies?

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May set off to explore without any sense of direction or how to return.

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#161553 - 01/06/09 04:58 AM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: scafool]
CANOEDOGS Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 1853
Loc: MINNESOTA
same here..don't know snow flys but black flys are the bane of canoe country.

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#161554 - 01/06/09 05:05 AM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: ]
scafool Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 12/18/08
Posts: 1534
Loc: Muskoka
Snow flies every winter.
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May set off to explore without any sense of direction or how to return.

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#161556 - 01/06/09 05:16 AM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: scafool]
CANOEDOGS Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 1853
Loc: MINNESOTA
i can see i have been bit by more than black flys here--------

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#161561 - 01/06/09 06:40 AM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: CANOEDOGS]
LED Offline
Veteran

Registered: 09/01/05
Posts: 1474
FWIW, shnapps, wiskey, and burbon are all effective snow fly repellents.

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#161565 - 01/06/09 11:07 AM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: LED]
Kris Offline
Addict

Registered: 04/13/07
Posts: 627
Loc: A Canadian Back in Canada
I'd take black flies any day over moose flies or even sand flies (pretty much noseeums).
_________________________
"One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything"
William of Ockham (1285-1349)

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#161575 - 01/06/09 01:58 PM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: Kris]
KenK Offline
"Be Prepared"
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 06/26/04
Posts: 2208
Loc: NE Wisconsin
I'd MUCH rather have the snow than black flies. This morning was quite nice out. Mid-20's and absolutely no wind. Our snow mostly melted away on 12/26 ... just a few drift hold-outs.

Around here - maybe because we have the horses - we get way too many deer flies, generic deer fly-like biting flies (they are as big as deer flies, but no spotted wing), smaller house-fly-sized biting flies (they follow the horses mostly) and an accasional monsterous horse fly. We'll rarely get bit, except for the smaller flies - they love to bite at exposed legs when near the barn, but when those bigger ones bite ... OUCH!!

Luckily I've never been bitten by a horse fly. I would think that would hurt like the devil. Poor horses.

Ken

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#161579 - 01/06/09 02:19 PM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: KenK]
benjammin Offline
Rapscallion
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/06/04
Posts: 4020
Loc: Anchorage AK
I'll take snow over flies anytime. Then again, deer flies don't much care for me, but I hate having them flying around me constantly.

I had a deer fly land on my hand last year in Florida. It took him almost two minutes to decide whether to bite me or not. I wanted to see what he would do, because I was doing a lot of vitamin B complex at the time and that notoriously makes me unpallatable to most insects. He finally chomped down, but I barely felt it. Then he flew over to a wall and landed. He made enough of a hole that I started to bleed, just barely. I went over to the wall and tried to shoo him off, and he wouldn't move. I finally swatted him. He didn't even try to escape. I dunno what it is about me and B complex, but I am always the last one to get bit at camp or at the ranch, if at all. Lucky me.

Working at the feed lots as a kid, I darn near would go insane from the flies buzzing around. I'd get in a closed room at the feed plant and grab a swatter and proceed to clear the room. Then I could finally kick back and take a nap.

I did get bit more often in Iraq, but not nearly as bad as most. I think I got bit half a dozen times there in the 9 months. Fortunately no sand fly bites.

I got bit by a horse fly once up in the Olympics mountains. Hurt like a wasp sting at first.
_________________________
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

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#161593 - 01/06/09 04:03 PM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: NightHiker]
Grouch Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 395
Loc: Ohio
I'll take snow any day since I can at least move it out of the way. We've had very little snow so far this winter (a couple of dustings) so I'm still hankerin' for a good dump to brighten things up. smile

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#161597 - 01/06/09 04:39 PM Re: What is worse in your opinion? [Re: ]
Stu Offline
I am not a P.P.o.W.
Old Hand

Registered: 05/16/05
Posts: 1058
Loc: Finger Lakes of NY State
I'll take Snow Flies. I hate black flies in my eyes and ears.
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Our most important survival tool is our brain, and for many, that tool is way underused! SBRaider
Head Cat Herder

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