Deer Flies

[jill jackson]

I swat these little persistent blood suckers, by the scores late May through the middle of August. I've started wearing a baseball cap hiking (one of those white mesh ones, for coolness) and I have it off my head knocking these pests off the dogs and me, more than it's on.
You can see the blood sucking apparatus bulged out and his transparent yellowish tail section, that becomes darkened with blood if they get a blood feast before you kill them. Sometimes one will get on a dog and when I swat it, it bursts and splatters blood everywhere. They are the most unpleasant part of summer hiking and will not stop until you knock them into next week!

 

[timcsaw]

That's a BAD deer fly....

THIS is a good deer fly (well.... a brand new flying baby deer anyway). First little one I've seen in my back yard this year.

The BAD deer flies, give the good flying deer a bad name!!

 

[b.c.molin]

We have big biting flies similar to your deer flies and when they bite they sting hard as well as draw blood.

A problem I have had with smaller black biting flies is when they continue to bite and and suck blood from the tips of a dog's ear, which over time without the protection of a repellent, can end up eating away the top edges of the dogs ears.

 

[mwerner]

We used to get a big gray biting fly down in the Ozark woods. These guys were not satisfied with a little blood, they wanted meat!
Durable too; you'd swat 'em and they'd just shake it off and fly away.