The black flies are a couple hundred pints ahead of the Red Cross after this past weekend and are expected to open the gap even more this coming weekend.
Take your bug nets and lots of dope and After-bite.
Black Flies…
…Defenders of the Wilderness!
Only crazy people go into the woods between Mothers Day & Fathers Day!
from a crazy person
the cold weather and freeze have delayed the BF. They were still just attempting to swarm today; the first warm day in a while. No bites.
Memorial Day should be a feast.
good time to go
On the contrary, with adequate defenses, this is the best time to go. less people otu and about allows for more peaceful times.
Was there May 16-19
and saw nary a fly. Maybe a dozen of the buggers over the whole trip, and no bites. Perfect!
-rs
lol
it hadnt warmed up yet! May 20 and 21 were cold too at night, going below freezing. The BF were having trouble warming up but were out on the 22nd learning to swarm.
I bet by this weekend they will be hungry.
Agree this will be the bad weekend
last weekend was cold, it kept them down on Friday and Saturday, Sunday about noon they warmed up and were thick. But by that time i was packing it for home and once i killed the dozen that got in my truck, it was peaceful on the drive home.
The Ranger at Massawepie said they were definitely hungry today, and he was figuring out what inside jobs to do tommorrow afternoon.
So when…
do the little buggers stop? The guide boat is calling me, and I’d like to come up middle June, probably Cranberry Lake and maybe up the O.
JH Bahn
They stop
when the frost kills them. But the population takes a big dive once the dragonflies hatch, about now.
My opinion is that anyone who wants to row a guideboat up the Oswagatchie is enough of a masochist that bugs would add to the pleasure.
Its so narrow that you won’t make many friends with the people coming downstream around those blind bends in the river.
Bill
Day-Paddled Little Tupper Today…
and even with a windless glass-smooth lake, the bugs were all very low. The only black flies I saw were being hotly pursued by a dragonfly.
Ahhhhh. Now I am ready for the work week.
~Glenn
Dragonfly is the answer
Once they hatch, the blackfly numbers take a big dive. How many blackflies each dragonfly eats each day of its life is unknown to me, but it seems the week they hatch the blackfly population gets cut down my at least a half.
Nature has its checks and balances. We are the outsiders.
Ugh.
Putting in tomorrow afternoon for a 3-day paddle with some buddies on the Saranacs. Got my bug dope all set. Bring on the black flies.