Confronting the AAF

I drove up to the Bolt Hole in the Adirondacks with the intention of cutting the grass (it’s been two weeks) and clearing some brush. I had been forewarned by my buddy Mark that the second wave of the Adirondack Air Force had been deployed so I wasn’t surprised at the number of deer flies that attacked while I pushed the mower back and forth on Saturday afternoon.

I doused myself liberally with Deep Woods Off before I started the mower, yet there was a cloud of black flies flitting about my arms and face that resembled Japanese Zeros attacking the US aircraft carriers at Midway. I had to breath carefully to avoid inhaling very many. Mixed in with these tiny, humpbacked beasts were the deer flies. Their flight was much quieter than you would expect from a dime-sized buzz saw on wings. (Mark refers to them as “mouths in flight.”)

The Off did a relatively good job of keeping them from landing on my arms and neck and the bandana, held in place by a baseball cap and draped over the back of my neck, saved me from further sunburn and bites. However, as time passed and I perspired more in the early afternoon sun, weaknesses in my defenses cropped up and the deer flies took advantage. I watched as they began to land on my hands and forearms. Waved them away when I saw them first, smashed them after they bit when I didn’t.

I cut an acre of grass in the bright afternoon sun and swatted and killed perhaps 30 deer flies without diminishing the number of attackers during the hour and a half engagement. I’ve still got another acre or so to cut and will get to that this afternoon if the grass dries out. (We had a brief but drenching thunderstorm move through just after I called for a strategic retreat and redeployed to the cabin to rehydrate with a Saranac Pale Ale or two.)

While I did get bitten (by deer flies only for some reason) and had blood drawn several times, I can report no lasting damage as there was no swelling from the bites. Guess all those allergy shots worked!


PS: I didn't go outside as dark approached (in fact I hit the sack very early knowing the birds and red squirrels would wake me at 4:30 or so--they did) so I cannot report upon the mosquito levels but I can say that the no-see-ums made it through the screen okay. Got bit a couple of times before I turned the light out.