June 2025 Obs/Disco

[Damage In Tolland]

Dewing and dewing and dewing it well. Locked in next few months! 
https://x.com/ericfisher/status/1929996725118197995?s=46&t=dhcbvkjmRcyBVQtDxJ3lRg

[powderfreak]

24 minutes ago, kdxken said:

Where's the dog?

She’s on the IL at the moment… think partial tear in her knee.  She ripped the other knee like 4 years ago and we got it fixed… worked great.  However, now she’s over 10, not in pain unless she goes on long hikes… so she may just be a light hike or valley dog along the river.  She can do 5 miles flat or like under 1,000 verts mellow… but the 2,000 vertical feet straight up Mansfield days may be done, sadly.  It’s just too much hind leg stress the whole way.

[DavisStraight]

3 hours ago, dryslot said:

I was in the garden yesterday and there was a hatch of black flies out there looking for victims.

They've been brutal

[DavisStraight]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

She’s on the IL at the moment… think partial tear in her knee.  She ripped the other knee like 4 years ago and we got it fixed… worked great.  However, now she’s over 10, not in pain unless she goes on long hikes… so she may just be a light hike or valley dog along the river.  She can do 5 miles flat or like under 1,000 verts mellow… but the 2,000 vertical feet straight up Mansfield days may be done, sadly.  It’s just too much hind leg stress the whole way.

Do you give her any type of painkiller? My last dog hurt her leg when she was 2 and was fine until she got to about 10, the long hikes stopped after that.

[powderfreak]

19 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

Do you give her any type of painkiller? My last dog hurt her leg when she was 2 and was fine until she got to about 10, the long hikes stopped after that.

Yeah she gets an anti-inflammatory if we notice her being a little sluggish.  Overall though dogs are incredibly pain tolerant and it’s tough/sad because if they are showing it, it really hurts.

I don’t take the dog hiking right now because I know she’d do it even if she was in pain.  She’d drag herself up the mountain with her front legs just to follow me around.  So I don’t put her in that position right now.

[dendrite]

38 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

They've been brutal

Strangely they haven’t been too bad here. Usually they’re before the skeeters and those are starting to emerge now. The midges have been more annoying that usual. And the ticks are off the charts.

[HIPPYVALLEY]

11 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Strangely they haven’t been too bad here. Usually they’re before the skeeters and those are starting to emerge now. The midges have been more annoying that usual. And the ticks are off the charts.

Yeah, black flies have been pretty much a  non-factor here, ticks on the other hand have been out of control. One of the worst tick seasons I’ve ever experienced.

i’ve had multiple bites, but fortunately all were caught very quickly.  I had a PCP write me a Doxy scrip just to have on hand. 

 

[DavisStraight]

17 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Strangely they haven’t been too bad here. Usually they’re before the skeeters and those are starting to emerge now. The midges have been more annoying that usual. And the ticks are off the charts.

We we're at the bank the other day signing papers and my wife had a tick crawling behind her ear; she nonchalantly crushed it and dropped it on the floor. I haven't had one this year yet.

[Damage In Tolland]

I’ve never understood this black fly fetish . At least in SNE they’re always non - existent. Unless folks are talking about gnats that get in your eyes and ears .

[dendrite]

3 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

I’ve never understood this black fly fetish . At least in SNE they’re always non - existent. Unless folks are talking about gnats that get in your eyes and ears .

We may be talking about the same thing unless you mean the tiny midges/no-seeums

[kdxken]

10 minutes ago, dendrite said:

We may be talking about the same thing unless you mean the tiny midges/no-seeums

Yep, same animal.

[kdxken]

44 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Yeah, black flies have been pretty much a  non-factor here, ticks on the other hand have been out of control. One of the worst tick seasons I’ve ever experienced.

i’ve had multiple bites, but fortunately all were caught very quickly.  I had a PCP write me a Doxy scrip just to have on hand. 

 

Lenient PCP that they'll write you a script beforehand. I would love to have some in storage for just- in-case. 

[dendrite]

Simulium venustum are the spring bastards

[Damage In Tolland]

21 minutes ago, dendrite said:

We may be talking about the same thing unless you mean the tiny midges/no-seeums

So if it’s what I think.. the tiny little things that fly into my eyes when I’m out pruning the shrubs every week? And I have to go inside and look in the mirror precariously to get them out? And they buzz your ears. And if you hold your arm above your head they fly to highest point? Those are gnats to me 

[Damage In Tolland]

I thought maybe was the deer fly they were taking about which are very territorial 

[Connecticut Appleman]

The Cornwall/Falls Village area here in Connecticut is insane with black gnats all summer long.  I used to do outside work there in my younger years as well as my in-laws used to live there and from May to Frost it was miserable to be outside unless there was 40 mph wind.

[powderfreak]

25 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

I thought maybe was the deer fly they were taking about which are very territorial 

I’ve never seen a worse place for deer flies than NE CT woods.  Those things are absolutely relentless until you kill them.  Then the horse flies that are the size of nickels, but they aren’t as bad as the deer flies.

[powderfreak]

29 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

So if it’s what I think.. the tiny little things that fly into my eyes when I’m out pruning the shrubs every week? And I have to go inside and look in the mirror precariously to get them out? And they buzz your ears. And if you hold your arm above your head they fly to highest point? Those are gnats to me 

Same thing essentially… gnats are the broad term for small annoying flies, ha.

“Gnats are a broader category of small flies that can include black flies and other species. Black flies, also known as buffalo gnats or biting gnats, are small, dark flies that are active in late spring and early summer.” 

[kdxken]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

Strangely they haven’t been too bad here. Usually they’re before the skeeters and those are starting to emerge now. The midges have been more annoying that usual. And the ticks are off the charts.

Same here. Hardly anything in the way it bugs. Except for ticks.

[kdxken]

38 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

So if it’s what I think.. the tiny little things that fly into my eyes when I’m out pruning the shrubs every week? And I have to go inside and look in the mirror precariously to get them out? And they buzz your ears. And if you hold your arm above your head they fly to highest point? Those are gnats to me 

Black flies.

[Damage In Tolland]

11 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I’ve never seen a worse place for deer flies than NE CT woods.  Those things are absolutely relentless until you kill them.  Then the horse flies that are the size of nickels, but they aren’t as bad as the deer flies.

Yeah man they are brutal . Every 5 AM summer run they just hammer my head and neck . Being as heavily wooded as this area is.. they literally find me no matter where I am . They are super territorial too. They have small areas they fly and as soon as you lose one. Another one gets you .. and so on and so on .  The one positive is as sweaty as I get , they don’t like that and generally don’t bite because of the salt . But the annoyance factor is enough to make someone gouge their eyes out with a grapefruit spoon. 

[Damage In Tolland]

10 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Same thing essentially… gnats are the broad term for small annoying flies, ha.

“Gnats are a broader category of small flies that can include black flies and other species. Black flies, also known as buffalo gnats or biting gnats, are small, dark flies that are active in late spring and early summer.” 

Well those mofo’s are here. They were flying into my ears this evening. Gnats 

[kdxken]

Deer flies as much as I hate them Don't do as much a damage as Black flies. Mostly bite my hands when I'm riding my ATV in the woods. Once you stop and start working the numbers decrease.

[CoastalWx]

Black flies bite. Kevin is talking about different things. We don’t have black flies.

[CoastalWx]

16 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Well those mofo’s are here. They were flying into my ears this evening. Gnats 

Those don’t bite. Just annoying.

[dryslot]

3 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Black flies bite. Kevin is talking about different things. We don’t have black flies.

Not only do they bite, They suck.

[Damage In Tolland]

5 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Those don’t bite. Just annoying.

Yup . As foc 

[powderfreak]

8 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Black flies bite. Kevin is talking about different things. We don’t have black flies.

So you don't have the "biting gnats."  Just the annoying gnats.

[HoarfrostHubb]

45 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I’ve never seen a worse place for deer flies than NE CT woods.  Those things are absolutely relentless until you kill them.  Then the horse flies that are the size of nickels, but they aren’t as bad as the deer flies.

Come to my area from mid June until early August.    The deer flies can be insane.  Although last summer wasn’t too bad. 
The horse flies come a bit later on

[powderfreak]

35 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Yeah man they are brutal . Every 5 AM summer run they just hammer my head and neck . Being as heavily wooded as this area is.. they literally find me no matter where I am . They are super territorial too. They have small areas they fly and as soon as you lose one. Another one gets you .. and so on and so on .  The one positive is as sweaty as I get , they don’t like that and generally don’t bite because of the salt . But the annoyance factor is enough to make someone gouge their eyes out with a grapefruit spoon. 

Dude I give you huge props for running every morning in that.  They are absolutely brutal in the woods there.  Back in high school and college, spending the summers living and working in Woodstock I would suffer through running the dirt roads through the woods around those parts (we were 1.5 miles from any pavement, so could do a quick out and back at 3 miles, or longer 5 mile loops with some minor pavement running).

It was so bad that several times a week I would actually drive to the Woodstock track and athletic complex that was out in the open, mowed around it, tennis courts, etc.  The deer flies didn't hit you at the track.  Sometimes I'd rather run around in a circle 12 to 20 times at the track, bored out of my mind, than deal with 2-6 deer flies buzzing and trying to bite you the whole time while running the dirt roads.