[at-l] January start

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 11:15 PM 1/11/2004 -0500, Casey Jaymes wrote:
>Have you ever been bitten in the eye by a bug?
>
>Black flies get in there and zap you, unlike mosquitoes that take their
>time and reconnoiter first. Mosquitoes syringe out some blood and inject
>some itch juice and then are off on their merry way. Black flies chew on
>you for a while, leaving bloody welts.

I never had one bite my eye but I have experienced clouds of them that bit 
any skin they could get to. They seemed to prefer my ears which were 
completely encrusted with dried blood by the time I go into my hammock (at 
6pm in June with 3+ hours of daylight left) and killed all the ones that 
came in with me. Even then they didn't give up. They found the tiny space, 
not much bigger than a pinhead, where the two zippers abutted one another 
and snuck in to continue the attack intermittently. The people I was hiking 
with on that overnight have sworn off hiking in late May thru June ever 
again. Glutton for punishment that I am, I still go out in black fly 
season, but only as day hikes.