I have learned to be tolerant of and even respect a critter
here and there, who I once considered to be nothing but a pest around the
homestead. So I don’t indiscriminately retaliate with the lethal weapons
against them as I once did. For example, I previously used chemical sprays to
kill off many garden looters, but now have learned to repel most of them with a
natural product. We have also learned to live with some critters we once would
have willingly sent to their deaths, when we have come to learn that they are
causing no significant harm. The key has been to learn enough about their
habits to keep their populations in check.
That said, I still have a few pests that I do not hesitate to
kill. (OK, I still have some work to do on my nonviolence practice.)
Mosquitoes, ticks, and horseflies top my extermination list. When one comes
buzzing around me or is crawling up my leg, I’m gonna assume that it is trying
to claim some of my blood (and possibly inject a nasty bacterium in me), and
have no guilty feelings about dispatching it.
Horseflies (and their close cousins, deerflies) deliver a
painful bite. As with mosquitoes, only the female horsefly bites, because she
needs some mammalian blood to nurture her eggs. (That’s yet another reason to
stop her: no blood, no biting babies.) The horsefly has razor-like mandibles
with which she slices into your flesh, injecting a little anti-coagulant, to
keep the blood flowing, so she can take a quick sip and flee, before getting
swatted.
Sometimes a group of horseflies or deerflies will swoop
around my head—flying at warp speed. I can hear them, and occasionally spot one
out of the corner of my eye, but they move so fast that they can’t be tracked
by us sluggish humans. It can feel like I’ve been transported into some bizarre
Star Wars scenario, with tiny alien
space ships zinging about me in a coordinated attack.
The horsefly knows she’s nearly uncatchable, because she
moves fast, so she maddeningly buzzes within inches of your head, causing you
to spin about, in a fruitless attempt to shoot her down. After she forces you
into a frantic state of mind where you can’t tell where she is, she silently
slips up from behind and gently lands on your shoulder or neck. An instant
later you feel the painful zap. She has drawn blood—even through your clothing.
Like tiny stealth drones, you’ve been nailed before you can put up a defense.
Horseflies are up to an inch long (that’s a big blood
sucker!). Deerflies, which may reach half an inch, are less intimidating to
see, but are sneakier. There are over a hundred sub species of these nasty little
beasts—some with fascinating names such as breeze flies, clegs, gadflies,
zimbs, and bulldog flies. (That last one seems like an endearing name.) Barnyard
animals can sometimes become weak from loss of blood, if repeatedly bit by a
swarm of these nuisances. My dog goes berserk when a horsefly comes within 20
feet of him.
More on biting flies next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment