How to Get Rid of Biting Flies (green heads) at the Beach?
The beach – a perfect place to relax in the sun, enjoy the water, and spend a little family time. That is until the dog yelps, the kids start crying, and everyone starts running for the car. It feels like someone stabbed you with an ice pick and your wife is rummaging for the first aid kit. There is plenty of blood, but you’ are not shot or stabbed. You are suffering from the bite of a Green Head fly.
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Ah the Beach
People see a wasp and they freak out trying to get away from it. Armatures! They have likely never felt those scissor-like mandibles of a green head slice open their flesh for a quick blood meal. Now that’s real pain.
The question is how do you get rid of biting flies at the beach?
Well you can douse yourself with deet or citronella but don’t fool yourself into complicity. The biting fly will hardly notice such defenses. These are visual hunters. They use those beautiful eyes to spot you as you stroll along the sand enjoying the surf. Insect repellent has little effect on biting flies. What you need is a Fly Cage – a fly trap that uses the biting fly’s own nature to trap it and ends its reign of terror.
Biting Flies and the Hunt
Horseflies and green heads hunt in a variety of ways. They are lurkers. They will land on a tree or bush and wait for something large to wander past them. They have compound eyes which means that they see well, but not crisp images like we do. They see shapes and have come to recognize movement and shape to mean prey.
Deer flies and biting flies prey on a long list of large creatures. They prey upon deer, horses, cattle, elk, humans and similar creatures. What do all those targets have in common? They are:
- Warm Blooded
- Emit Carbon dioxide
- No or little fur on their underbellies
- They often stop and graze or observe
Green heads have adapted to look for these traits when they hunt. At the beach, we stand out like a lighthouse in a storm. The green head is well equipped to track us too. They can sense the carbon dioxide that we breath. They follow that like a heat seeking missile follows a hot jet engine.
How to Get Rid of Biting Flies at the Beach
What the Fly Cage does is it uses the visual hunting part of these traits to lure in the green heads and then traps them. A Fly Cage is one of the most effective ways to rid the beach of green heads because it mimics their prey.
The good news for those of us who enjoy the beach is that we can do just that. We are not sure if it is safe to go in the water, but with a good fly trap on duty, the dry bits are a safe bet.