black flies suck

Hahahah. Been there, got bit. It's no laughing matter when a tiny thing you can hardly notice can leave you with blood running down your face and exposed areas in early spring. Wardens didn't have to worry about prisoners walking away from a northern penitentiary - those that did often came crawling back in agony for treatment. An old tyme native treatment involved rolling in sticky mud to form a barrier to the biters.

They like to get me in the back of the leg, between upper calf and bend in the knee. The little buggers will land, spend about a minute, then bite. If you chase them off before they bite, they will circle right back to the exact same spot, and sit for that minute then bite. They will come back repeatedly if you keep chasing them off, until they get their sit and bite.

I have had middling success in chasing them with cutting a fresh cayenne pepper and gently rubbing some on my skin. Carefully, not too much as I don't want to blister. Usually they have an hour to an hour and a half before and during local high noon then usually go hide for the rest of the day again. Early morning when it's cool they hide too. They come out when the day starts hotting up. Or at least the ones I met in Front Range of Colorado and the OK Panhandle.

(I'm scratching the back of my knees and calves just THINKING about this... grrrrrr)