Stable Fly and Biting Midges

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Stable Fly!

Stable Fly is also known by a whole slew of names; barn fly, biting house fly, dog fly, or power mower fly. This fly is a blood licking fly also! (Big surprise there huh?)

The Stable Fly can be found outside when it is sunny, but will come inside homes durning bad weather.
Both male and female stable flies feed on blood and are persistent feeders that cause significant irritation to host animals. Adults are 1/4 to 1/3 inch long and resemble house flies. A "checkerboard" appearance on the top of the abdomen.

The Stable Fly is on the left (note the checkerboard pattern). Common house fly is on the right.



Stable flies prefer feeding on lower parts of the hosts such as the legs and belly of horses and cattle. They also feed with mouth parts that are scissor like in form and function. They do not suck but lick or lap up the blood from the wound.

A close up of the Stable fly mouth and head



Eggs are deposited into a variety of decaying animal and plant wastes but are rarely found in fresh manure. Fly larvae develop in excrement mixed with straw, soil, silage or grain, but are also found in wet straw, hay, grass clippings, other post-harvest refuse, and poorly managed compost piles. Large round hay or straw bales, where contacted by moist soil, may also serve as a larval development site. Larval development requires 11 to 21 days, depending on environmental conditions. Mature larvae then crawl to drier areas to pupate. The pupal period varies from six to 26 days depending on temperature. The entire life cycle from egg to adult is generally completed in three to six weeks.

Stable Flies carry diseases that affect animals and they also can carry anthrax. To avoid getting bitten wear long sleeves and pants. Some traps are available for livestock, and cedar shavings can prevent them from nibbling on pets.


Biting Midge close up





Biting Midges

Biting Midges also called Sand flies. This fly has biting and sucking mouth parts. Ouch! These small flies are renowned for their nuisance biting associated with habitats such as coastal lagoons, estuaries, mangrove swamps and tidal flats in coastal regions. That means for here ponds, lakes and rivers.

The biting activity of adult biting midges is mainly limited to the periods of dawn and dusk; they will remain inactive through very windy weather, finding shelter amongst vegetation. Biting midges will usually disperse only short distances from their breeding sites. Only female midges feed on blood, but both the females and males will feed on vegetable fluids and nectar. Adults midges are 1.5-4.0 mm long with stout short legs, and at rest fold their wings, which are often mottled, over the abdomen. Their mouthparts are short and projected down. Female midges may attack humans in large numbers, biting on any areas of exposed skin, and often on the face, scalp and hands. Some species will blood feed on a wide range of animal hosts.

The egg batches contain between 30-100 eggs, and are laid on selected substrates such as mud, decaying leaf litter, damp soil or other vegetative materials, dependent on the species. The small eel-like larvae hatch in a few days; their larval habitat must contain a proportion of organic material with a high moisture content to provide optimum conditions for the larval stage to thrive and pupate. The whole life cycle takes 3-10 weeks, dependent on species and environmental conditions, particularly temperature.

Biting midges;one is full from feeding the other is not.



Biting midges are responsible for acute discomfort, irritation and severe local reactions. Itching may commence immediately after the bite, but often not for some hours later, and most individuals are unaware of being bitten at the time. Biting midges have their greatest impact on people arriving to an area or tourists. Local residents seem to build up some immunity to the biting. In some sensitive people, midges can produce persistent reactions that blister and weep serum from the site of each bite and these reactions may last for several days to weeks. Biting midges are not known to transmit any disease

Repellant is great at keeping these ting flies at bay. Also when outdoors where long-sleeves and pants.

Join me tomorrow for Chiggers! If you have a biting insect story please leave it in the comment section. Don’t forget to book mark me and please sign my guest book!