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Comment by boomboomsubban | Hacker News Reader

That was my first thought, and without seeing the paper all I can do is guess. My guess is when they say the horseflies like big dark objects they mean big and/or dark, with big being the top priority. So a big white blob would still be more appealing than several small white and dark blobs.

That, or the shade mean even white is sometimes a big grey blob.

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Anecdotally, big isn't really necessary, though it helps (especially when designing traps, since there are going to be a lot of the suckers). Look up either the H Trap or the Bug Ball.

I've always thought black works best, but that might just be for horse flies- a quick google search seems to confirm that blue does work better than black for deer fly traps.

Blue does!

I even have a blue hat, to which I tape blue masking tape, and spread tanglefoot on. I catch endless flies, and am not bit!

Examples:

https://eagergridlessbeaver.wordpress.com/2021/08/04/blue-so...

Are deer flies a biting fly? We've got flies that bite, but I am only vaguely aware of the term deer fly.

I am unaware of the term deer fly. The name tends to suggest that they'll bite deer; it's possible they're not interested in biting humans.

Horseflies will happily bite humans, though they are pretty well guaranteed to die in the process.

Wikipedia says that deer flies do bite humans and their bite 'may be painful'. They are a type of horsefly, suggesting that the description of their bite is understated.

I wonder if we just call the "deer fly" a "horsefly" here. We (Missouri, USA) have the little horseflies (maybe a 1/2") and then the giant horseflies (biggest I've caught was 3").

Where I live, deer and horse fly are sorta interchangeable terms. Quebec.

We do have different breeds of them too. Early in summer, the head biting one.

Later, near August, there is one with a yellow back, and it goes for ankles!

That's pants in sock season time.

There are loads of bot flies too. They supposedly go for cattle, but I've caught mice with their larvae, so I worry about napping outside, during their season.

From upstream: Horseflies will happily bite humans, though they are pretty well guaranteed to die in the process.

Not sure this is a deer fly. The ones I hit, often just fall off, then fly away. You usually have to crush them with your foot to kill them. They are tough.

Ya our jumbo horseflies can take a lot before the don't get up. I use to go out and swat them off my cattle and they'd shake it off and come right back. I now pull a wing off and leave them on the ground. Their remaining wing buzzes really loudly and the spin in circles which attracts the chickens. I can get about a hundred in a 30 minute period at the peak of their season and the hens will circle around to grab them.

An excellent solution!

In my part of the woods (Wisconsin) horseflies are quite large, between 1/2 and 1 inch but mostly around 3/4. Deer flies are much smaller with a distinctive triangular shape made by their wings when they land.

Both have a very irritating bite, but the deer fly is a small sting of pain that goes away quickly while the horsefly tends to leave a large welt that sticks around for at least a day or two.

The horseflies I'm familiar with lived in a swamp in New Mexico. The bite felt like getting hit by a nail gun, but they'd explode when slapped.

> Are deer flies a biting fly? We've got flies that bite, but I am only vaguely aware of the term deer fly.

There are different. There's the horse fly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse-fly) and its related species deer fly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_fly) And there's the black fly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_fly) which is a different family. They all bite.

I don't have time to read it, but the paper is linked at the bottom of the article.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.244778

Thanks, I assumed that was the start of the ads and ignored the gray square.

This particular experiment didn't test pure white but it sounds like a previous did.

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