And like fools we even provide the salt!

Here is some good info provided by Tom Ellis - Entomology, Michigan State University Extension - 6/06/97

The adult female blackfly requires a meal of fresh blood to produce viable eggs. The males, like most men-animals, are just nice guys that hang out.

The greatest portion of a blackfly's life is spent as the immature form. It fastens its tail end to a rock or other stream substrate, and collects organic particulate matter from the flowing water. They can only live in fast-flowing, well-oxygenated portions of a stream.

They form a pupa when their time has come to transform into the adult form. For most species, this is from mid-April until early July. However, there are so many species that there is probably always one emerging throughout the warm seasons. However, the adults are most abundant between June 1 and early July.

The time spent as an adult is relatively short, maybe a week or two. They spend their time feeding, partying, and laying eggs. The female fly actually dives into the stream, swims down to vegetation and deposits eggs on available substrate.

Blackfly adults range a long way from their streams of origin. They are strong fliers. Flying 15 miles is not out of the question for them.


In reply to: Length of black fly season posted by Jim on June 15, 1999 at 13:36