Small but mean!

Bad memories. I met my old attendance officer, Jack Walton, at a church bazaar a week this Saturday.
October 20, 2007. Flashback! Jack entered my office in late May many years ago. I was doing some principal work as he spoke. I recognized the voice but the face was not Jack’s. His face was so swollen from back fly bites. Know the story? I had camped on the Mattawa River that flows into the Ottawa. It was May 24th weekend. My five year old son, Paul, and Bill Osborne and his two boys were with me. We climbed the lookout over the beautiful Mattawa River. It had been quite an ascent for a five year old. He was tired and wanted me to carry he on my shoulder which I did as we descended the path. They struck. “Squish! Squish! My loafers felt funny. My shoe soles had become soaked with blood. Black flies had attacked my bare legs. Another bad memory. Our family camped across Canada one summer. We were are at Sibley Provincial Park near the Lakehead, Ontario. I had sprayed my bare arms and legs for this was black fly country. It worked but Plato, what about your head? They bit with a vengeance. A year later my scalp had not healed from those bites.
On a week spent at Algonquin Park I did some research. I walked down to the fast flowing Whiskey Run river on the west edge of the park. It was the bottom of this waterway that black flies had laid their eggs. The flies were emerging from the water and were instantly flying. I netted some and as you see below I drew one. I enlarged my sketch. I was liberally sprayed with OFF containing deet. Yes, even my cap. I made some notes at the time. What about your encounters with black flies?