Warrior General Games

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2018/05/21/gnats-good-question/

Anyone else deal with these SOB's? We live next to a river, it is incredibly difficult outside right now.

If you do have them, the best preventative I have ever seen is Absorbine JR, it is a topical sore muscle treatment and if you generously apply it, it seems to keep the gnats away.

black flies are awful in Maine this time of year. Our backyard stays pretty wet until mid-june or so. makes working in the garden a bitch.

Originally posted by Venkman
black flies are awful in Maine this time of year. Our backyard stays pretty wet until mid-june or so. makes working in the garden a bitch.

Do you have flowing water nearby? They typically need current to reproduce unlike mosquitos who like stagnant water.

CP... horseflies, black flies, and all those things we dealt with back in the day by having a couple of cattle rubs stationed over their favorite paths (one was in the gate area where they came in to feed and get milked). Not sure if they still make them or if they've changed over the years but I'll describe them to you and see if you know what I'm talking about.
They're long, skinny (narrow), cylindrical tanks with a burlap wrap around them and that wrap held against the tank with a rough corrugated type of mesh screen (similar to a corn screen). Also where the screen bolted together there was some heavy canvas strips that hang down like the scrubbing skirts at the local carwash. Two chains at either end of the tank allows you to hang the assembly at the height of the cattle's shoulders, allowing them to pass under and rub. You fill the tank with what stuff that wicks onto the burlap and down the strips that the cows move through and under and that seemed to really help a lot.
I wish could remember what we used in the tank... I seem to remember we might've used diesel fuel in it? Kerosene? Maybe dad used something he bought at MFA. But, whatever we used, it did a damn decent job of keeping the problem curtailed to minimum issue. Hope that helps.

Originally posted by Venkman
black flies are awful in Maine this time of year. Our backyard stays pretty wet until mid-june or so. makes working in the garden a bitch.

I spent some time on Moosehead Lake in a different life. Black flies are vicious!

https://simplysoothing.net/collections/bug-soother

This stuff really works and some of you will appreciate the "all natural" thing. Personally, I don't care if a product has harsh chemicals or toxic waste if it keeps these merciless little bastards from biting. Every retail store in the area is selling this as fast as they can get it, I am ordering it online because the bottles are tiny and most of the area retailers are limiting your purchase to 2 bottles a day IF they have it.

The absorbine works but if you sweat, you have to keep reapplying it and the little foam applicator on the bottle doesn't hold up with sweat and dirt. The bug soother you can spray on your shirt and it seems to last longer.

Little bastards are making the outdoors absolutely miserable.

Originally posted by Theo Wizzago
CP... horseflies, black flies, and all those things we dealt with back in the day by having a couple of cattle rubs stationed over their favorite paths (one was in the gate area where they came in to feed and get milked). Not sure if they still make them or if they've changed over the years but I'll describe them to you and see if you know what I'm talking about.
They're long, skinny (narrow), cylindrical tanks with a burlap wrap around them and that wrap held against the tank with a rough corrugated type of mesh screen (similar to a corn screen). Also where the screen bolted together there was some heavy canvas strips that hang down like the scrubbing skirts at the local carwash. Two chains at either end of the tank allows you to hang the assembly at the height of the cattle's shoulders, allowing them to pass under and rub. You fill the tank with what stuff that wicks onto the burlap and down the strips that the cows move through and under and that seemed to really help a lot.
I wish could remember what we used in the tank... I seem to remember we might've used diesel fuel in it? Kerosene? Maybe dad used something he bought at MFA. But, whatever we used, it did a damn decent job of keeping the problem curtailed to minimum issue. Hope that helps.

This is what I use now, I've also done the dust bags and the cows get run through the chute every 4-6 weeks and I apply a pour-on insecticide. In the oilers, we mix diesel fuel with an insecticide and rotate products every month to prevent the flies from developing a tolerance.

https://easywaycattlecarellc.com/

I'm trying to figure out how to keep the darn things from chewing up my neck, ears and arms. I walked out of the house this morning to grab something out of my truck without applying any bug stuff and I counted over 30 bites in about 4 minutes and they follow you inside and keep biting. I'm thinking I'm somewhat allergic to the stupid things because they are so tiny but the welts from their bites are bigger than a bee sting. It may have been a combination of the black fly bites and the heat but I fenced yesterday and normally when I start, I'll go until dark but I quit after 12 hours because I felt like shit, there was still 2.5 hours of daylight when I quit but I couldn't do it anymore. Either that or I'm getting old.

They target the back of the ear, neck, insides of your elbows, wrists and they get inside of your shirt around the waistline and neckline. The swarm was so thick in the pasture yesterday I think I swallowed and inhaled about a hundred of the stupid things.

Originally posted by Cowpoker
The swarm was so thick in the pasture yesterday I think I swallowed and inhaled about a hundred of the stupid things.

Where do you live?

Originally posted by atlbruce
Where do you live?

Minnesota, they are typically only awful for about 3 weeks and then they don't disappear but they are not as relentless and aren't as bad unless you are near water/trees/grass and shade. I'm not a golfer but they seem to complain about them all summer and I will have them in the cattle pastures that have all of the above conditions.

The bright side is the mosquitos have not started yet due to the cold spring and with all the water around here, they will be bad as well but I'll take mosquitos over black flies any day of the week. A little Deet and you're good to go.

*crosses Minnesota off list of summer trips*

Originally posted by atlbruce
*crosses Minnesota off list of summer trips*

It sucks outside right now, no doubt about it.