It's often uncomfortable to walk in bottomland, deciduous woods during June because of biting female deer flies. I've been bitten many times during that month over the years. Those flies circle their victims, eventually land on them and immediately bite before the victims are aware of the flies' presence. To avoid the bites of these flies, and other kinds of insects, one should wear long-sleeve shirts, long pants and insect repellent when in the woods in June.
The one-half-inch deer flies are biting flies that live in bottomland, deciduous woods near streams, creeks or swamps in the United States. These stealthy, persistent flies deliver painful bites to people, deer and other, larger mammals. Both genders sip flower nectar and plant juices, but females also risk their lives to suck blood to get protein to develop clutches of eggs.
Female deer flies lay shiny, black eggs in clusters on emergent plants just above the water. The pale-yellow, worm-like larvae hatch and drop into the shallow water where they ingest tiny, aquatic insects. Fully grown larvae pupate in mud at the water's edge and emerge the next June as adults.
Deer flies are attractive in appearance, in spite of their annoying, painful ways. Their bodies are black with yellow-green markings on their thoraxes and abdomens. Their eyes are green or gold with varying patterns in them. And their clear wings have dark patterns.
Deer flies, like all life, are part of several food chains. They are food for a variety of woodland birds and other animals. Flycatchers, which are a family of small, fly-catching birds, including wood pewees, great crested flycatchers, eastern phoebes and others, eat many deer flies. Black-winged damselflies, frogs and toads, bats and other creatures also consume them, keeping their numbers down.
Deer flies are attractive, but annoying, insects in wet woods in June. They can be pests to people, but we can rejoice in the fact that many are eaten by several other types of woodland critters.
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