{"id":2630,"date":"2012-02-27T13:38:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T18:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/?page_id=2630"},"modified":"2019-03-08T10:07:02","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T15:07:02","slug":"black-flies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/black-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Flies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-497 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/BlackFlies.jpg\" alt=\"A composite photo that shows two images of three black flies in total, all starting to feed on a person.\" width=\"551\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/BlackFlies.jpg 551w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/BlackFlies-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/BlackFlies-105x62.jpg 105w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/BlackFlies-317x188.jpg 317w, https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/BlackFlies-423x250.jpg 423w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,551px\" \/>Maine is notorious for its <strong>black flies<\/strong>. Black flies are generally small, black or gray, with short legs and very short antennae.\u00a0 They belong to a family of flies called the <em>Simuliidae<\/em> family, of which there are four genera containing species that feed on people. There are additional species that prefer instead to feed either on other mammals, or else birds.\u00a0 Of those that require blood, it is only the females that bite (as is the case with mosquitoes as well), with the males feeding principally on nectar. Black flies need running water in which to breed. By contrast, mosquitoes require much more stagnant water such as ponds and puddles. Some black fly species live in large, fast-flowing streams, while others prefer small, sluggish waterways. However, almost any kind of stream can serve as a home to some particular species of black fly. Some species can even breed successfully in irrigation ditches.\u00a0 Breeding success of black flies is highly sensitive to water pollution, making them an important indicator species for assessing the quality of the water in a given river or stream.\u00a0 But, they are a common nuisance overall, and so many states have programs in place to suppress their populations.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Additional Information: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.unh.edu\/resource\/black-flies-fact-sheet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Black Flies<\/strong><\/a> (University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maine is notorious for its black flies. Black flies are generally small, black or gray, with short legs and very short antennae.\u00a0 They belong to a family of flies called the Simuliidae family, of which there are four genera containing species that feed on people. There are additional species that prefer instead to feed either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"parent":1561,"menu_order":76,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2630","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Black Flies - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/home-and-garden-ipm\/fact-sheets\/common-name-listing\/black-flies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Flies - Home and Garden IPM from Cooperative Extension - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maine is notorious for its black flies. Black flies are generally small, black or gray, with short legs and very short antennae.\u00a0 They belong to a family of flies called the Simuliidae family, of which there are four genera containing species that feed on people. 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