Thread: Biting Flies

Any of you locals have a remedy for these suckers other than long pants and tennis shoes? We are sorta new to the area, vacationed for years here but just last summer bought a house in Elberta. Anyway back to the topic. My daughter and myself went out offshore in Ft Morgan a few days ago to do a little bottom fishing but basically got ran off the water by these vicious critters. I also encountered them at Alabama point once last summer while trying to spend a day on the beach with the wife. I tried Off insect repellant but they just laughed at that. We had a few that would bite back in North Alabama on the Tenn. river but they wasn't near as painful as the ones in the Gulf.

I guess you are talking about dog flies which look like house flies except that they love to bite, mostly below the knees for some reason. I've had fair luck with a high percentage DEET spray, but only fair. Once the spray has been on for a while, the flies are right back after you. Like you said,long pants are the best answer, but they will bite right through a pair of socks. Down on the beach, they are always worse when the wind is out of the north to blow them out of the marshy areas. They'll get you stomping like a man killing roaches.

What he said

If you are out on a boat it is good to have some flying insect spray (I use Raid) to really run them off. If you accidentally get a little on your legs it will repel the hell out of them (but may make you grow an extra head or get some sort of neurodegenerative disease so don't get much on).

Yeah, the wife and I lasted about an hour last October at Ft Morgan beach near the No Name road. Thinking that they wouldn't be that bad we set up our sun shelter and chairs, etc. cast 2 surf poles out. Tried to chill. Bailed out of there real quick. Never saw anything like that.

Thanks for the repiles guys. I will give the Raid a try. Hard for me to wear pants and shoes when its warm outside. I was amazing how fast those suckers would be on you when we were about 10-12 miles offshore with nothing around for them to be attracted too (except my boat. lol). And Just incase anyone was wondering there is plenty of Snapper out there for when the season opens.

I've been thirty miles offshore and been covered up with the little devils, and I know they didn't come out on the boat with me. I think they get blown out there, see a boat sticking up, shout "Alleluia" and make a beeline (flyline?) for it. The late summer and early fall billfish tournaments are often plagued by them---hard on an angler to be reeling on a blue marlin and swatting flies at the same time. They can also be real dangerous on shore, too---I've been working at the cleaning table and dang near stabbed myself in the leg with the fillet knife when one took an extra big chunk out of my skinny shin.

Sounds like Yellow Flies. Terrible little insects. Search the internet for yellow fly traps. They will not totally get rid of them but they help. Good news is they will be gone in about 3 weeks. Bad news is they come again in August. Twice a year....every year

We have 1 of these HORSE PAL® Horsefly Trap - Newman Enterprises, Omro, WI - biting flies, horse fly, deer fly, yellow fly, greenhead, horsefly, deerfly, fly bites, fly trap, bitingflies, horsepal and also 2 black hanging ball traps.

Good Luck

Long pants, shirts and socks treated with permethrin. I don't go down to the gulf without some. Spray clothes down and let dry outside. Its available at academy sports around here....some walmarts have it as well. Stays effective with several wash cycles, can't remember the number right now. Works on ticks, too.

Try lemon grass oil in a spray bottle. Works ok and non toxic