Black Fly Season Off To Rough Vermont Start. Here's Why And What To Do

Black flies are the scourge of spring in Vermont, 
especially this year with all the recent wet weather. The
community of Adamant, Vermont does try to make
the best of it with an annual festival. 

 I mentioned in passing in yesterday morning's post that the black flies in Vermont are awful this year. 

Very, very awful.  

Black flies are probably Vermont's least favorite tradition from mid spring to early summer. We want to be out there smelling the lilac blooms and collecting early season salad fixings from the garden, only to be swarmed by these biting little buggers. 

I've  noticed some black fly seasons are worse than others.  There's good reason why black flies season 2023 is off to such an annoying start.

As the Green Mountain Club explains, black flies tend to lay eggs in flowing water. With all the rain we've had recently, there's plenty of flowing water. Even in places where there usually isn't much flowing water. 

The conditions are perfect for this, so they're swarming. Some of you in colder parts of Vermont probably haven't noticed yet, as it's still early in the season. But beware. They're coming.  Green Mountain Club explains here why black flies are often worse than other annoying bugs:

"These biting insects will swarm humans and livestock, biting around the head, hair, and ears. Black fly bites are painful, as the bugs cut into the skin and lap up blood that pools into the wound. Bites appear as puncture wounds or a huge swelling. Common reaction rations include lymph node swelling and skin rash."

 Black flies are most active on cloudy, humid days and just before storms, which explains why this week has been such a pain. (As you've noticed, it's been cool and damp, with frequent showers and scattered downpours).

They're also most active mid to late morning and late afternoon and early evening. I always pray for windy weather when I'm outdoors during black fly season.  The gusts tend to overwhelm these tiny gnat-like attackers and keep them at bay. Sometimes. 

Insect repellents containing DEET seem to ward off mosquitoes, deer flies and the like. But it doesn't seem to have much effect on black flies. At least in my experience.  Some people say they have a bit of success with lavender, vanilla extract, pine branch extract and citronella. 

Wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts help ward off black flies, especially if you tuck in your shirt. Of course, that doesn't  help if you're out there doing physical activity in the sun, as you'll overheat with all those clothes on.  Wear light colored  clothing too.  Black flies, true to their name, are attracted to the color black.  Which is my favorite color to wear. Go figure.

Many species of black flies don't bite. But they constantly try to get into your ears, eyes and mouth, which is super frustrating.  While the following doesn't happen in humans, we can relate, given how thick the swarms are: Black flies have been known to suffocate birds, chickens and other animals because they're so numerous they clog respiratory tracts. 

On the bright side, black flies don't transmit diseases to humans, like mosquitoes and ticks do. 

 We're about to enter a multi-day dry spell in Vermont, which might reduce the amount of flowing water out there. But, too late. The damage is done. We're stuck with a lot of black flies through the spring and early summer.  There will be plenty of water left for the bugs to keep reproducing, too. A wet spring is good, except for the black flies. All that water out there on the landscape won't be going away anytime soon. 

There isn't much we can do about the existence of black flies, other than hibernate inside. But who wants to do that now that winter is over and spring is blooming with abundance?  I suppose we can take some advice from the tiny Vermont community of Adamant.

Adamant, an unincorporated village within the town of Calais, holds an annual Black Fly Festival, usually on the first Saturday of June. This year's event is scheduled for June 3. It features a parade, black fly inspired treats and other events.

I guess the village of Adamant is telling us if you can't beat the black flies, join 'em. 

Lousy Stuck Weather Pattern To Unstick, Then A Much Better Stuck Weather Pattern To Hit

A burst of sunlight lights up a landscape of dark clouds
early this morning in St. Albans, Vermont. Our stuck, wet
weather pattern is scheduled to be replaced by 
another stuck, but better weather pattern. 

 Springtime for some reason is peak season for stuck weather patterns. 

The flow in the atmosphere often gets tangled up, and you end up with basically the same weather for days. 

What you end up with is usually luck of the draw. Sometimes, you get stuck in a wet, dreary pattern, other times you're "stuck" with brilliant blue skies in warm temperatures, like we had in mid-April. 

Last week, we were stuck under a showery regime, as low pressure to our northwest kept us unsettled. But at least we had long breaks of partly sunny skies in which we could get things done outside. That pattern untangled last Friday, only to get us stuck in a new spell of wet weather. 

This week's long spell of wet weather has been worse than last week, I suppose. The showers have been more frequent. The sun has been more scant. But we can look on the bright side. The core of the coldest air with this stuck pattern has been off to our south and west, in the Great Lakes and central Appalachians 

Some of those areas got quite a bit of late season snow out of this. In Vermont, we avoided frozen precipitation. Unless you include snow on the mountain peaks and pea sized hail accompanying heavier lower elevation showers. 

Now some good news: Over the next couple of days, this current regime will become unstuck and move on.  Quick on its heels will be another stalled weather pattern that will be.........not bad!

Big high pressure will settle in near Hudson Bay, Canada starting this weekend and continuing through most of next week. Low pressure will stall far off in northeastern Canada.

This will set up a pretty persistent northwest flow of air over us. 

On paper, this looks a bit ominous, but in reality, it won't be hard to take at all. 

In the winter, with this kind of pattern, it can stay pretty cold, with subzero temperatures.  You'd think with this set-up, we'd get some late season freezes and basically an end to spring, with frost-ruined gardens and such. 

NOT  this time, though.  Most of the snow has melted in central Canada and the high pressure isn't from the Arctic. It's pretty mild under that system. 

So, air temperatures through our next stuck weather regime will be pretty close to normal.  That means highs most days will make it into  the 60s, with possibly a 70 degree day or two thrown in for good measure. Lows are forecast to be in the mid 30s to mid 40s. Sure, there might be a touch of frost some nights in the coldest hollows, but that's perfectly normal and fine for this time of year. 

One bonus is there will be a fair amount of sun this weekend and next week. We won't always have crystal clear skies, but we'll definitely see enough sun to keep you - and the garden flowers and the pollinators happy.  

 Little, moisture-starved disturbances and weak cold fronts will keep coming down on us from Quebec during this upcoming regime. That might touch off a few periods of clouds and some widely scattered light showers. But the vast majority of the time will be dry, so you can get out in your yard and enjoy.

It's actually good that we've gotten all this rain and it's so soggy out there. That moisture will help us get through at least a week of mostly dry weather. 

The one negative in all this is the black flies. They are AWFUL this year!!!!!  I'm hoping the northwest breezes that will accompany the weather this weekend and next week will be strong enough to help keep those dreadful little buggers at bay. 

Suddenly Green, But Also Black Flies Invade: Spring In Vermont

I swear most of those trees behind the spruces in St. Albans,
Vermont had virtually no green yesterday.
Amazing wha a mild,rainy night can do this time of year. 

 It almost felt like I slept for days or even weeks, not just overnight when I got up early this morning in St. Albans, Vermont. 

The mild overnight rain that had been predicted materialized. After some relatively balmy weather yesterday, the rain went to work on the trees and I'm suddenly in a green landscape. Trees that had been bare yesterday are covered with little green leaves this morning .

Things did change big time overnight. 

The rapid advance of green should continue with today's rain.  Relatively cool air Thursday through Saturday might slow the process a bit, but the warmest weather so far this year coming up next week should advance "foliage season." 

What's not to love about all that? It really is my favorite time of year. 

This being Vermont, though, there's always a drawback. I've seen the first stirrings of the dreaded black flies in the past couple of days. Those little buggers will explode into annoying swarms over the next few days. 

Today's rains will give them a boost as they hatch, and the warm air coming will create clouds of them, I hate to say.  You pray for windy weather during black fly season, because gusts tend to make it harder for them to bother and bite you.  Unfortunately, a good chunk of that upcoming warm spell will have very light winds. 

Black flies do prefer cloudy days, so with sunshine anticipated, that will help.  I'm told black flies don't like light colored clothes like pastel green, or orange or yellow, so consider your fashion choices during black fly season. 

Ah, but we're used to these little devils anyway. Happens every year. The peak of black fly season usually goes from about Mother's Day to Father's Day, with the mosquitoes taking over during that time period. I guess bugs enjoy a Vermont spring, too.

Bug spray with DEET usually eases the problem, at least for me. No biggie.

The only insect I'm truly concerned about this year is gypsy moth caterpillars. You'll remember last year there was a huge outbreak of them which defoliated so much of Vermont's Green Mountains. Although the name of these horrible pests has an ethnic slur, so we'll call them spongy moth caterpillars from here on out. 

There's a good chance they'll be back this year, which makes me nervous since they stripped a hill in back of my house bare last summer.  The caterpillars stopped just short of defoliating my property, and I fear they will nail us this year. I'm sure a lot of other people are a bit worried about this, too.  Not sure what to do about it, but I hope we have a miracle and they don't turn out too bad.

Today's damp weather is what we need, as this weather encourages a fungus that kills spongy caterpillars. But this is just one day of rain. We're in for a long stretch of dry, nice weather. 

Which is what we all love in the springtime.  But like I said, it's Vermont. Even wonderful things have their downside here.