It is time for you to know how to identify the horse flies and deer flies to avoid them. Find out what their habits are, body, where you can find them, and the correct way to prevent them. You must know the difference that both flies have with the more than 120 species in all your family lines.
What Are Horse Flies And How To Identify Them?
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The horsefly is one of the most common in this entire family of flying insects that you know. They are large; you can see them with the family behind horses, cattle, or even other people. How this fly annoys is incredible; they usually come in packs so that you will have a lot of problems.
Something very curious is that the male horsefly is focused on absorbing the juices in the plants and the nectar. This species’ female fly does require a blood and other proteins to make eggs and maintain her line in your home. You can see how all the female flies go after horses, sheep, cows, rabbits, among other animals.
These flies have an insatiable diet where they mark the goal and not rest until they take your blood. The bite is somewhat annoying; if you suffer one of them, you will see a bulge around the piercing. Something very beneficial is that the horsefly eats in the day and rests at night; they hate the dark.
In their most detailed form so that you can easily identify them, horseflies are twice the housefly’s size. Its body is not hairy, and the eyes are slightly larger than its entire body in general. The body of horseflies is black, their wings are transparent, short antennae with an easy to identify the orange color.
You can easily see horse fly larvae on your animals, which makes the process of removing them easier. With this small disadvantage in the gadfly flies, you can control an infestation; you should only use repellants.
What Are Deer Flies And How To Identify Them?
This pest is very similar to horsefly flies; although its size is slightly smaller, its behavior is identical. Deer flies are naturally bloodsucking that you can see around the world in any season. They have bright eyes, very wide wings, and a slim body that plays a major factor in their flight speed.
Male deer flies focus on collecting pollen while females need blood for their eggs. These flies seek not only animals but also human blood, so you must be careful of an infestation. The attraction of these flies to the blood is through an open wound; they usually eat alone.
A key attractant for flies in this category is body heat, where a temperature of 30 degrees is irresistible. Its bite is painful and leaves a mark on your skin, so you will feel a lot of discomfort if a fly attacked you. Just as horseflies are disease-carrying pests, you must fight them.
Flies are active during the day and leave their functions at night; they cannot fly at a low temperature. You can see an elongated shape, enormous wings, and eyes with a size symmetrical with its head on its body. Its color is yellow with a touch of orange; it has three black lines on its thorax and four lines on its abdomen.
In proportion, a deer fly in its adult stage measures 10 to 12 mm, a reasonably small size compared to horseflies. They are very annoying flies that affect animals and your own life; you must recognize them and avoid them.
Also Read: How to Get rid of Crane Flies in Your Lawn
Life Cycle Of Horse Flies And Deer Flies
The horsefly vs. deerfly has a fairly similar life cycle, know it:
- Eggs: both types of flies lay from 50 to 1,000 eggs approximately, you can observe them on vertical surfaces, rocks, vegetation, etc. Each egg measures 2.5 mm maximum, and its hatching cycle is seven days maximum depending on the conditions. If you see a shiny brown discharge near your house, the eggs of these biting flies, break them open and avoid infestations.
- Larvae: they have a thorn that they use to come out of the egg; these larvae are aquatic to find them in wet areas. They are long and have a brown, green, or white color depending on how big they are.
- Pupae: it is the next stage after the long ones; the horse fly vs. deer fly is already in its maturity stage. This stage can last approximately three weeks for you to have an infestation of these flies at home.
- Adult Flies: finally, when the flies reach their adult stage, they have a life span of 60 days if you do nothing. In this process, they usually feed on your blood or animals to start their multiplication again. You must end this line of pests in your home to avoid this flying insect’s illness and discomfort.
How to Keep them Away From your Animals?
If you want to eliminate the horse fly and deer fly, you must do the following:
Use white vinegar
You must bathe part of your house, or where the infestation of flies predominates with white vinegar, the smell drives them away. This remedy is very easy to use, and you can apply it to your animals seeking to keep the plague away from your body.
Garlic is a solution to repel them.
You can buy garlic and chop it up to spread on your pet or animal tormented by flies. The home remedy does not finish them, but it repels them to the point that your house or blood is satisfactory for the flies.
Create a flytrap
You can create a homemade flytrap using a pot of soda, some water, and a half-cut banana. You have to cut the pot in its central part, place the tip inside the rest of the container without a lid and insert the elements. You must put a little water, and the banana is useful for the deer fly or horsefly to be attracted and fall.
Professional solution: Use insecticides
If you feel that flies are not repellent in your home and animals, you should opt for a professional solution with insecticides. You must do your research until you find the product that is efficient for these specific pests. There are some electric irons that you can buy to kill flies, it is very good, but its cost is high.
Deer or horse flies are a pest that you should avoid both because of the discomfort they cause and because of the diseases. You must drive away or kill this pest to have a happy life without being bitten. You can search for many home remedies online to save money and completely ward off this flying insect.
