Oh man, sorry. I hate biting insects. I hate flies especially, biting or not.

Huh, that is weird. Don't think I've even seen a horsefly in years....I remember as a child those things bothered us at the swimming pool pretty often.

I have a friend in Florida who says there are large yellow biting flies at this time of the year in the rural forest area where he lives, so bad that he does not go outdoors for long.

I dont believe I have ever been bitten by one but those bad boys are huge!

Hope you aren't too sore. I'd take a swatter and bug spray with me.

Horse flies are awful. I feel your pain.

I recall a holiday weekend in my youth when a group of my city dwelling friends and I traveled to the eastern half of the state for a camping trip at a state park bordering a very large lake. I think it might have been the 4th of July weekend and hotter than blazes in what is essentially a desert in the middle of WA state. OMG, the horse flies!! They don't have things like that back in the civilized world we came from!! Between the intense heat and swarms of horse flies the size of small aircraft, we spent almost all of the weekend in the lake with water up to our chins just to be semi comfortable. Why we didn't just pick up sticks and go home is a bit of a mystery but lots of liquid refreshments (we were trying to stay cool after all!) might have had something to do with it.

Yeah, we got bitten. That's why we sat in the lake the whole time.

Nasty things, horse flies.

Yikes, regular flies are bad enough, but a horse fly twice in one day, how awful! I hope the pain has gone down by now.

Are horse flies anything like greenhead flies? Those things are brutal. What an experience.

Those suckers are AWFUL!! I swear I think they stalk you!

Amylou- the 2nd one came to avenge the murder of his brother. You are a marked woman. LOL

Thanks for the reminder it’s time for those bad boys to come out. We have horses in our neighborhood, and it’s always a surprise when i’m out in the garden and get attacked. Sorry you were stung twice, Amy.

I was once repeatedly dive bombed and chased across the yard by a.......butterfly! I'm not kidding.

I've been attacked and chased by a bird. I assume I and my dog were too close to her nest. It was at a park that we walked in every morning and one morning every time we made the loop and came to this one spot she would attack.

She didn't attack anyone else walking by though. Maybe because I was the only one with a dog.....

She didn't sting me though.

We have nasty greenhead horse flies in the marshes where I live. The females need blood to produce eggs. I typically am bitten around my ankles. Very painful, bloody bites!

Oh those horseflies are nasty! I went to summer camp once along the boundary waters of Minnesota and a bite on someone was an event of fascination for us dorky kids. I had one behind the ear, oooowww! But you got bit TWICE in a DAY? And a slap with a rolled-up magazine? I think the rest of your week is going to have to be GREAT because you’ve had ENOUGH!

Horse flies are bad but the quantity is not usually very high where I live. When I visit my brother in Wisconsin in the summer the deer flies are terrible. Although smaller than a horse fly their bite is just as painful.

Deer flies are attracted to the color blue. My brother has several blue hard hats that he has sprayed with an adhesive and we ware them when the deer flies are bad. They land on the hat and get stuck on the adhesive. Need to scrap them off periodically.

We have them here, mainly by the beaches. They sure do hurt, but I can’t say I’ve ever been bit through my clothes. They’re relatively easy to swat, as flies go, and it’s a satisfying kill.

(Pink fly swatter made me laugh. I shouldn’t be surprised anymore!)

When one of my neighbors had horses we would get them. Couldn't sit outside on the deck without them driving us inside. She got rid of the horses and the flies went away. Never got bit thank goodness.

We did have a yellow jacket nest out front and got bit every time we went out front. My poor dog got bit 3 tiimes in row just trying to use her potty area. We had to hire a pro to spray the underground nest and get rid of them. I got bit several times trying to rescue my dog. Talk about pain! I hate yellow jackets. We put out traps every year since then.

Having horses, I am very familiar with horse flies. We get different ones at different times of year. The really big black ones are more prevalent in late summer....and like Nicole said, I have seen them follow my truck.

We have cattle egrets here that stay with the horses during the day, and seem to keep them under control somewhat, but late in the evening, as the sun is going down, the egrets go roost and the horse flies get particularly bad.

Ded, looked it up. Those greenhead flies at the shore are a typr of horsefly. I remember my dad swatting them. For some reason, they seemed to go after him a lot. He had a different blood type than the rest of us (well, little sis was B negative, I believe)-either AB neg. or B neg. Can't remember. They were nasty and so were the black flies. Ugh. Give me a sea breeze!

I was stung on my back while laying by the pool in my swimsuit. Kids were swimming. We noticed it but ignored it. Didn't seem to be bothering anyone. All of sudden it zoomed around the back of my lounger and bit me right between my shoulder blades right into the skin. This was over 20 years ago and I still can remember the pain.

I have never killed a living thing except for horse flies, house flies, mosquitoes, and ticks. When we lived in the country many years ago, we had horse flies and they were wicked. You have to pity the poor horses and deer that have to deal with them. Sometimes on the trail, I see the deer trying to get them off their bodies. After reading this post last night I came to my desktop this morning only to find an enormous house fly on the keyboard, ...the size of a horse fly. One came in the sunroom last night and I swatted at him with my slipper and apparently connected.

I have to confess, I laughed through the entire read. You made it so interesting and lively! Sorry but funny.

amylou - You crack me up!!

Amylou, what an intersting and lively read. I had to grab my electric fly swatter before I could finish your post. Seen any more?

Here is an interestin article about New England’s Green Head Flies. They ca ruin a July day at the beach.

https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/living/pests/greenheads/

Haven't seen anymore at work. At home, a few have met Mr. Raid and Mrs. Swatter.