#100happydays Day 77 Nature’s little dive bombers!

#100happydays Day 77 Nature’s little dive bombers!

Deerflies, most runners hate them, so does anyone else who wants to enjoy the outdoors in the summer.

Dark-eyed deer fly

Glenis really hates them. She does this little twirly thing when they start to buzz around and then gets a panic look in her eyes and takes off. It’s sort of amusing to me because the flies usually buzz around her more than me. So if is stay a few feet behind her, I’m usually bug free.

You usually see us running with a face cloth clutched in our hand. While it looks kind of silly, that cloth not only wipes up sweat and blood, it smacks bugs and makes a good fly chaser.

Deerflies are in family Tabanidae, genus Chrysops similar to horse flies which can also take a chunk out of you. They are blood sucking pests which can really ruin a good day. Wouldn’t you know it only the females bite, the males are nectar and pollen feeders. Did you know they are attracted to blue? I should tell Glenis…

Bug hat selection

The web has lots of ideas to protect yourself from these beasts. One involves a blue cup or bucket covered with stick stuff called Tanglefoot worn on your head! Another is to apply double sided tape to a hat and wear that with all the little suckers stuck to it! That wouldn’t be too yucky, would it? I could see Glenis doing that! Maybe if enough of them were stuck there, we would be faster. Can’t you just see us in our next race running with blue cups covered with bugs on our heads?

What do you think? Could we rock the look?

Maybe I’ll just tell her not to wear blue.