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MILLINOCKET,Maine-Mainers call the black fly the state bird.Residents and tourists have long steeled themselves against the flies' annual warm-weather onslaught, sometimes duct-taping pant legs and wearing screened hoods to keep the deceptively small bugs from delivering bloody bites or crawling into seemingly every body crevice.But there are now more black flies in more places in Maine, and the reason may be surprising: It's the success of the environmental movement.Many species of the gnat-sized insects are sticklers for cleanliness.When Maine's rivers were filled with contaminants from paper mills and other industries, only the hardiest black flies laid eggs in them. Now, rivers and streams are progressively cleaner, providing ideal breeding grounds for the annoying pests.It's an unintended barometer of good ecological health, but Maine officials are adamant they will not mess with nature in any way to provide relief. "They can be so thick you breathe them in and they get stuck in your throat. They even get under your eyelids," said Julia Brilliott, an Eastport resident who showed off four lumpy red welts on the back of her neck after climbing Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park last week.For the uninitiated, black flies are blood-sucking insects with a menacing reputation worthy of a late-night science fiction movie. Not all bite humans - some feed on other mammals and birds - but those that do are relentless daytime feeders. Even the nonbiting flies are often despised because they emerge by the millions in warm months and, lured by the carbon dioxide we exhale, swarm around people.Each species of black fly has its own ecological niche. In New England, they are partial to the White Mountains, Berkshires, and North Woods. Some in Maine are fierce biters that tend to emerge around Mother's Day and disappear by about Father's Day. Others, some that bite humans and some that don't, will emerge later in the season.Some states, such as Pennsylvania, heavily control black flies. Officials there spend about $6 million a year treating 47 rivers and streams with a bacteria whose naturally occurring toxin kills black fly and mosquito larvae. Pennsylvania officials say the bacteria, called Bti, are not harmful to humans, mammals, birds, fish, plants, and most aquatic organisms.Maine officials say they won't use it, however.The rivers were polluted enough in the past, and officials refuse to put anything else in them unless it's to solve a human health crisis. They say trout and birds feed on black flies, so killing fly larvae could have ripple effects on wildlife. And Bti kill other fly species that are part of a healthy ecosystem."We do not favor anything that is toxic to one organism because we often find out down the road they are toxic to others," said David Littell, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
