Mosquitos and blood-sucking flies: There ain’t no bugs on me

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 15, 2026

IT WAS GOING to be one of those summer days I’d remember all winter.

Sitting in the shade of a perfect 78-degree day with a cold beverage, I was taking a break from the chores I hadn’t done yet.

That’s when I noticed this was not a perfect world.

For a minute, I thought I was seeing things. Tiny spots were dancing before my eyes. In no time at all, I determined they were bugs. Then they were in my eyes, ears and nose. Those were no-see-ums, tiny bloodsucking flies.

They are said to feed on the nectar of flowers, but the females need blood to fertilize their eggs, and that’s where I came in. I swatted at the tiny insects, but it did no good.

They flew away from my clumsy hand and came back in clouds for more.

With the heat of the day, the bugs seemed to be getting larger and more active.

About then, I felt a slight burning sensation. A large gray mosquito was poking into my knee, engorging with a meal of what little blood the no-see-ums had left in my carcass.

I smashed the mosquito with a sense of victory, until observing the resulting bloody smear of my bodily fluids the insect had extracted before its demise.

Apparently, this was another bug that required blood to fertilize the eggs of another generation of blood suckers. Finally, here was a bug I could kill.

I felt better about that until a short time later, when another flying insect attacked.

It was the dreaded black fly. Just a little smaller than the house fly, the black fly is a voracious pest that can make you wish for mosquitoes.

Many places in the North woods have what’s called a black fly season. These tiny little torturers attack in legendary swarms. Like the no-see-ums and the mosquitoes, the black flies need your blood to fertilize their eggs.

I was beginning to see a pattern.

That was about the time I felt a searing pain in my calf. I spotted a colorful bug much bigger than the black fly poking into my hide.

I swatted the bug. It fell to the ground and, amazingly, got up and took off flying! That was a horse fly.

It’s just about the meanest and craftiest bug we have.

Their bites leave welts that itch from the anti-coagulant they pump into you to get your blood to flow faster.

Horse flies can work in teams. While one buzzes in front of your face, another one attacks you from the side. Swat them if you can, but horse flies are fast and smart.

Defending against horse flies can require a team effort since they love to attack from behind.

I have seen rainforest campers swatting each other with willow branches even before the booze hits.

They are defending each other from the horse fly attack.

Even the old swimming hole is not safe from horse flies. They will attack you in the water, leaving you scratching bug bites for days.

By then, the bugs were getting to be too bad.

I went to water the garden.

On opening the door to the pump house, a large bug hit me in the back of the head.

It was a warning shot from a bald-faced hornet!

There was a paper nest about the size of a grapefruit above the door that I hadn’t noticed before.

The hornets were cranky.

I retreated to the river to make a few casts where the breeze blew the bugs away and there ain’t no bugs on me.

Pat Neal is a Hoh River fishing and rafting guide and “wilderness gossip columnist.” He can be reached at 360-683-9867 or by email via patnealproductions@gmail.com.