Tougher Than... Well, Just Tough

Last night I came into the bathroom intending to take a shower before going to bed. There was a momentary delay while I flossed and brushed my teeth, and took my prescription pills and vitamins.

While I was doing that I noticed out of the corner of my eye, something that kept flying around the bathroom (Isn't that always the way it is, you always see these critters at the edge of your vision?).

Finishing up with a swig of water to wash the pills down, as I was undressing, I saw the culprit resting on the wall near the toilet paper holder. A doctor fly. I knew it! I'll bet he was just watching me to see what I was going to do so he could plan his attack.

A Doctor Fly. Also Called A Yellow Fly Thanks to the U of Fla. for the foto

Fooling him, I slipped out to the kitchen and retrieved a fly swatter. Luckily, he was still in the same position as when I had left. That usually doesn't happen. My lucky day, I guess.

Putting my glasses back on, so that I'd be sure of getting a good shot at him, I lined up and swung. Using my right hand too, to ensure deadly aim, I missed him - not by much, but enough that he took off toward the ceiling.

With lightning reflexes, I swung with a strong backhand and made contact with him. Unfortunately, I lost track of where I had knocked him. It's a good idea to keep track of the critters after a successful hit, because usually, you have to whack them again to kill them, otherwise, they're likely to just feign death, wait a bit, shiver and shake, and take off to try coming after you again.

Like I said, I lost him, so I undressed, getting ready for my shower. As I was stepping into the shower enclosure, I saw something on the floor of the shower over against the far wall. I looked closer, and sure enough it was the doctor fly I had whacked before, just lying there motionless.

I grabbed the fly swatter once again and clobbered him again, this time knocking him into the middle of the shower. I nudged him onto the fly swatter with my finger and dumped him into the toilet.

As often happens with doctor flies, I was just kind of gazing at him, making sure he was dead, when I noticed a twitch, and another. "Son of a bitch, he's not dead," I thought. I pulled a couple of sheets off the toilet paper roll and covered him with them. I was going to leave him, but thought better of it at that time and so hit the flush lever, sending him to the great septic tank in the sky.

Or so I thought. Here he comes back up swirling around with the water filling the toilet bowl. "Damn. Tough little thing, isn't he?" I said to myself, and grabbed a couple more sheets of toilet paper and covered him with those.

Thinking he was surely done for, I stepped into the shower and proceeded to wash the afternoon and evening's sweat off. As I stepped out of the shower, I glanced into the toilet bowl once again. Uh oh. toilet paper was there floating on the surface, but no doctor fly.

That little begger had out-foxed me completely. Talk about being tough. He survived three good whacks with the fly swatter, one flushing, and two attempted drownings using the toilet paper, and he still managed to make a clean getaway.

I looked for him for a bit, but never saw sign of him again. I even looked this morning. Nothing. Probably just as well. As tough as he hadappeared to be, I'm not sure but that he might have whacked me soundly and then tried to stuff me in the toilet.

Sometimes, it's probably better to wait for another day and try again. Or maybe I need to move one of the blue balls into the bathroom. Doctor flies don't seem to be able to resist those too well.

As an example, here's a shot of the blue beach ball we have hanging in the front breezeway.

Not Well Focused, but Gets the Idea Across

It's probably got fifty or sixty doctor flies stuck to it. I seem to haave better luck with those than with my aim with a fly swatter.

So, the next time you hit a doctor fly, and are tempted to leave him for the ants to remove... Are you sure he's dead - really sure?

Just A Case of Blue Balls

We've had a pest here since we came to Belize. No, it's not mosquitoes, although they can be troublesome at times, but overall, 'squitos are a minor irritant - unless you're trekking off into the bush, where you could get eaten alive. Here at Casa Winjama, unless you're hanging out around our front gate, you really don't suffer much from them.

No, what I'm talking about are doctor flies. Unlicensed quacks they may be, they try to operate on you at every opportunity. Their bite is not usually painful when applied, but the swelling and itching afterwards can be damn near excruciating.

The way they approach is insidious. Usually, they fly through the area where you might be sitting or whatever, then they pause to survey their prey (you). The next step usually is for them to fly over and bump you and quickly alight somewhere nearby to see if you reacted to the bumping. If not, then you can be sure they'll zoom in for a quick bite and a blood meal. Usually, other than the initial bump, you never feel them when they actually land to begin feeding on you. It doesn't take them long either. Just a few seconds and their deed is done.

By and large, it's new arrivals to Belize who react physically, the most to doctor fly bites, the swelling can be quite intense. We had been here for a week or two when I got a bite on my right forearm in the afternoon. By that evening, we had to head up to the hospital, as my forearm had swollen such that I thought the skin was going to burst.

Antibiotics and antihistamines later, and with an injection in the butt cheek, the swelling began to go down. It seems that as you stay here and receive a few more bites, you develop an immunity of sorts - at least for the swelling.

The itching bit never seems to become less. You just become more likely to apply Preparation H to the bite. Yes, that's right, Preparation H, the hemorrhoid ointment or cream. It really does work. Everyone has at least one tube around the house. Many times, you'll be out somewhere and get a bite, and somebody in your group will whip out a tube of Preparation H that they conveniently had stashed in their purse or bag.

So, cutting to the chase, we're bothered by these little pests. They don't seem to be affected in the least by the malathion spray, that is broadcast now and then to combat mosquitoes. They do seem to be somewhat cyclical. That is, they'll be around for a week or so, then no sightings for the next week or two, then they're back again.

No one seems to know if they have any natural predators, at least none of us knows if they do. We do know that ants really prize them when they're dead. After we swat them twice (you have to make sure they are dead. They're ability to shake off a good swat is phenomenal. When their carcass lands on the ground, in no time a all they are surrounded by ants who really work diligently to haul them back to the nest. It's kind of fun to watch them work at it.

OK, so we're bothered by them, but until recently, there seemed to be no way to combat the little pests. That is, until I happened to read a posting by Wilma Lingle on the South Englishtown Gazette (http://southenglishtown.blogspot.com/), about a solution she and Dennis had found.

By the way, the South Englishtown Gazette is an excellent read in it's own right. I highly recommend as a very worthwhile read.

Enough with the plug. Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Talk about having doctor flies. We have no right to complain about our doctor flies. They have doctor flies down in the Toledo area on the Monkey River. Holy cow!

Well, if you look at the photo of Dennis holding up one ball with around 1,600 doctor flies on it, that should convince you that they're on to something.

Dennis Okane-Proving They work. (Photo by Wilma Lingle)

Thanks to Wilma for letting me use the above photo.

Where we might talk about killing four or five of them in a day, Wilma and Dennis talk about killing four or five thousand in a day. My God. How can they do anything out of doors down there? One wonders.

Well, they have found a solution. Getting blue balls. No, it's not what immediately comes to mind (although I did look it up and found, somewhat belatedly in life, that 'blue balls' is an actual medical condition - look it up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_balls). What it is, in this case, is obtaining blue beach balls and hanging them around the place.

Big Blue Ball Hanging in the Patio Palapa

It seems that doctor flies are attracted to the color blue. If you get the blue beach balls, you can coat them with the same type of sticky adhesive used in bug traps, and I would assume, fly paper traps, hang the beach balls in likely areas, and stand by while the doctor flies become attracted to the blue balls and get themselves mired in the adhesive. Somewhat like Brer Rabbit and the tar baby story.

Wilma and Dennis have been in contact with a university professor, who was investigating doctor flies, also called yellow flies in Florida. He was the one who discovered they like the color blue and came up with the beach ball method.

Wilma and Dennis ordered several 24" beach balls, and gallons of the adhesive (they buy it 4 gallons at a time), and commenced their attack. Wilma made a posting on the South Englishtown Gazette, which caught my eye as possibly the only defense against these critters.

Last month we ordered our own supply of beach balls (we ordered the 16" size blue balls), from Beach Balls.com (http://www.beachballs.com/16-inch-solid-blue-p7-beach-balls-inflated-diameter-12in-31cm.asp) and a couple spray cans of the adhesive from Bio Control Network (http://www.biconet.com/traps/TangleTrap.html). We were still somewhat skeptical about the efficacy of the treatment.

Blue Beach Balls - We Bought Six of 'Em

But then again, refer back to the photo of Dennis with 1,600 of the buggers, just to restore your faith in the process.

I inflated several of the balls we ordered, and hung them in, hopefully, strategic areas - our patio palapa, by the pool, the entrance to the pool house, our front breezeway, and the front porch.

Another Big Blue Ball Hanging From Awning Frame

A Big Blue Ball Hanging Adjacent to Pool House Big Doors

After hanging each one, I then sprayed the ball liberally with the adhesive. Remember to stand up-wind while doing the spraying. Overspray drifts quite a bit, and I got some in my beard and mustache, and on the floor of the front porch.

Bug-Trap Glue - Just the Thing For Blue Balls

Overall, it was a pretty easy process. Now, all we have to do is sit back and wait for the little buggers to discover these fancy blue balls.

A Big Blue Ball Hanging in Front Breezeway

Unfortunately, as of sundown yesterday, we hadn't been able to attract a single doctor fly. We're hopeful that will change soon. Although our numbers, even under ideal circumstances, will be significantly less than those of Wilma and Dennis.

Big Blue Ball Hanging inside Front Porch

A great day for us might be a total of eight to ten combined from all our balls. Hell, I'd be happy with five, even with one.

We've got one more ball to hang. It'll probably go on the back porch. Gonna have to go out soon and check our trap-line. Geez, it sounds like we live in the wilds of Alaska or something.

Late Breaking News...

Dateline, 08 June, 2015 Corozal - First two doctor flies captured with exotic 'Blue Balls' method of entrapment. "Expense justified," says Director of Maintenance.

Our First Two Doctor Flies - Stuck But Good!

And Finally, Some Late, Late Breaking News...

Dennis added by email that he forgot to let me know of their remedy for Dr. Fly bites. With the numbers they're talking about, they should know the best treatment.

When the Dr. Fly bites, "we spray on Stop Pain which contains 8% menthol.  It works pretty quickly to stop the itch of the bites. Later on Wilma noticed that if she then used hydrocortisone ointment on the bite, it seemed to reactivate the Stop Pain." He said if Stop Pain isn't available locally, you can get it on Amazon.com, and have it shipped down.

Dennis said the best  name for the Yellow/Red/Dr. fly he ever heard was from David Santilli, who lives down further south in Punta Negra: "Spawn of Satan"!

Damn Doctor Flies

These little bastards have nailed me four times in the past two days. I have three bites on my left ankle and one on the back of my right hand. My ankle isn't doing too bad, but the right hand has puffed up reminiscent of when we first got here and I had to go to the hospital for the swelling.

My Right Hand Puffing Up

What can I say? Slather on some more Preparation H Creme and down a few more Benedril. Oh, and another Belikin.

University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Dept. of Entomology and Nematology (http://entnem.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/yellow_fly.htm) has a nice scholarly article on Doctor Flies, or Yellow Flies (Diachlorus ferrugatus (Fabricius)) as they're known in Florida.

Like mosquitos, the female is the one doing the biting. Although both sexes will feed on nectar, etc., the female needs blood for egg development.

The female doctor fly is one of the most serious flying biting pests, and will attack people "vigorously", as their website says. the bites, often occur stealthily, only becoming painful about when the fly is ready to depart. The bites become somewhat painful, with large and continuously itching perimeters of the swollen bite area. I have noticed the doctor flies here tend to do a "fly-by" first, with sort of a bump against the area they plan to attack, I guess to see if you react. If you don't react, count on becoming a victim.

The doctor fly will attack virtually anytime throughout the day. It becomes very active in late afternoons and on cloudy days and indoors as well. It's quite prevalent near large water (Corozal Bay, in this case). It does tend to stay near forested areas. All exposed areas of the body may be attacked. I've only been attacked on the ankles, toes hands and fingers. Doctor flys will also readily attack cattle as well as dogs and cats.

The peak season for doctor flies is April through June. Around here, they seem to be especially bothersome now.

Mosquito repellent (repellent with DEET is said to be best) is supposed to be effective against doctor flies unless they're really hungry. Ours must be starving because bug juice doesn't seem to matter. Gloves and headnets (like for bees) provide the best protection.