This month I’m going to focus on identifying biting flies. But, you may ask why. Well, the answer is simple; they’re everywhere! In the Brandon area, it’s the worst for me. Horse and deer flies are swarming one last time during this year before the colder weather hits. So today, we’re going to talk about the Horse Fly vs the Deer Fly. We’ll start with identifying them.
Horse Fly Vs Deer Fly: Identification
Deer flies and horse flies are blood-sucking insects that can be serious pests to people. Horse flies are the larger of the two by a pretty big margin. Horse flies can be around three forths to an inch and a half long. But, they also usually have solid color wings and bright eyes. Deer flies, which commonly bite humans, are smaller with dark bands across the wings and colored eyes similar to those of horse flies. Attack by a few of these persistent flies can make outdoor work and recreation miserable. The numbers of flies and the intensity of their attack vary from year to year.
When you go outside in the spring and the fall, that’s when you get the worst amount of them. Horse flies and deer flies swarm when the weather is not too hot or cold. So when you go outside to walk your pet, that’s usually when they get you the worst. Female horse flies and deer flies are active during the day. These flies apparently are attracted to such things as movement, shiny surfaces, carbon dioxide, and warmth. Once on a host, they use their knife-like mouthparts to slice the skin and feed on the blood pool that is created. So even if it’s a case of deer fly vs horse fly, you don’t want to see either.
What can you do?
So now that you can identify a deer fly vs a horse fly, what is there to do? Well, for the common man there isn’t much. That’s why if you have a problem with either of these insects, you need to contact a pest control specialist. But you need to make sure you use one that uses natural methods of pest control since chemical pesticides have been proven to be less safe.
