“Biting flies” is a loose term that can refer to all kinds of annoying pests such as black flies, horse flies, deer flies, stable flies, and biting midges (like no-see-ums).
Spend time outdoors in Minnesota during the summer and you’ll come to know them well: “biting flies.” The trouble is that the term can mean a lot of different things. Biting flies, sometimes, are not even flies.
Black flies, also called buffalo gnats, are the small humpbacked ones, only a few millimeters long, that swarm your face and hairline on May and June afternoons. They breed exclusively in clean, flowing water, so streams and rivers produce them, never stagnant sloughs, and their emergence comes in concentrated waves that pass in a few weeks. Their bite is actually a cut rather than a puncture, which is why it bleeds slightly and welts more than you’d expect.
Horse flies and deer flies are the big, fast, aggressive ones that circle your head when it’s hot outside. Deer flies are the smaller ones with patterned wings that fly around in the open sun near the water and the woods. Horse flies, by comparison, can be as long as an inch. But both breed in wet soil, marshes, and ponds. That’s why they bother you by the dock.
Stable flies look almost exactly like common house flies but bite, usually at the ankles and lower legs. They breed in decaying wet vegetation, manure, and soggy hay or grass clippings.
Then you have biting midges, or no-see-ums. They’re nearly invisible and they sting disproportionately at dawn and dusk. They breed in wet muck along shorelines and marsh edges, and they're small enough to pass through standard window screens. They also hurt far more than they should for something so small.
Tired of being bitten in general? Mosquito Squad of North Central Minnesota can help. Mosquito Squad treats areas where insects spend time during the day. This can help you make your property less popular among pests so you can enjoy time outdoors all season long.
