The Great, White Winter of 2017

[Gusington]

No worries soon it will be autumn.

[mirth]

And Toonces will be at his wit's end

[Gusington]

If he survives summer.

[mirth]

That is a big question mark.

[Gusington]

Big, humid question mark filled with ticks and skeeters and maybe a stinkbug or two.

[mirth]

Do they have black flies in Rhode Island? Those things are the worst.

[Gusington]

You mean black flies that bite and take chunks out of your unprotected flesh? We call them chiggers here.

[Barthheart]

These basturds!  >:(

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-fly/

In the Athabasca River region of northern Alberta, weight loss in cattle caused by the black fly attacks in one outbreak (1971) amounted to 45 kg per animal; 973 animals were killed in one area alone by Simulium arcticum, a species whose saliva contains a toxin which in large quantities causes anaphylactic shock and sometimes death in cattle.

[mirth]

You mean black flies that bite and take chunks out of your unprotected flesh? We call them chiggers here.

That's them. We get clouds of the bastards here.

[Gusington]

 Clouds...ugh...just one is enough to make a Commander scream.

[mirth]

These basturds!  >:(

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-fly/

In the Athabasca River region of northern Alberta, weight loss in cattle caused by the black fly attacks in one outbreak (1971) amounted to 45 kg per animal; 973 animals were killed in one area alone by Simulium arcticum, a species whose saliva contains a toxin which in large quantities causes anaphylactic shock and sometimes death in cattle.

I just read that. I don't know if anything like that has been recorded in Maine, but anecdotally they can drive critters bonkers.

[Barthheart]

Yeah... they are the leading cause of deer/moose and car collisions as the animals run crazed terror from the woods to get away from the pain..... 

[Gusington]

Someone make sure The Commander never sees these posts.

[bbmike]

You mean black flies that bite and take chunks out of your unprotected flesh? We call them chiggers here.

Those aren't chiggers. Chiggers are far, far worse than black flies. I know from experience.

[Gusington]

Oh well then tell mirth to quit the whining then. I've been bit by chiggers maybe twice and it was very painful (and a little bloody) each time.