Aussie Bush Flies

Something about the rain yesterday made me remember the Australian bush flies, a species of obnoxious flies that seem to be glued to your skin in the summer time. And I really mean glued, because they completely ignore simple shakes or waves, and if you manage to get them to fly off your face they will take a two second flight and come back relentlessly. They love the precious wet parts of the body, such as eyes, lips, nose and eyes. Considering that they also like to visit dung and other dirty places, this experience is twice as awful. In areas where they swarm, the victory is theirs and if you manage to keep them off the face and neck with insect repellents (the more powerful the better), then you don’t fight them on the rest of your body. The picture of my back on a walk in Gippsland (East of Melbourne) shows the density they can reach even when they are not drinking your sweat. And yes, their persistence was such that walking, running, jumping and other clownish movements I tried did nothing to deter them from sitting on my back. The famous Aussie salute is a continuous wave in front of the face, a desperate attempt to get rid of these insects that tickle and sting in the same time. In the rural areas people used to wear hats with cork hung in the front, tricking the flies into sitting there instead, but use of insect repellent is a lot more efficient nowadays. Can’t think of a “pestier” pest!