Black flies, black helicopters, WI DNR t o blame

“Just read this in the July 7 Chicago Tribune. WATCH OUT WISCONSINITES!!

Conspiracy theory takes Wisconsin by swarm

By Douglas Holt
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 7, 2002

EAGLE RIVER, Wis. -- Swarms of large, black flies have descended upon the Northwoods in near-apocalyptic numbers this summer, pinning fishermen inside their cabins and prompting locals to spin theories about government conspiracies.

"For lack of a better word," Eagle River Mayor Jeff Hyslop said, "I guess I'd call it a plague."

Locals say they have never seen so many of the flies scientists call Sarcophaga aldrichi, and rumors are flying about what has caused the relentless invasion, which appears to have peaked in recent days.

Whether at a gas station, grocery store, bar or restaurant, it's hard not to hear someone blame the flies on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

"Everybody's talking about it: `Oh, the DNR introduced the flies,' " says Rich Behrens, owner of Smuggler's Lounge restaurant and bar in Eagle River. "Rumors fly wild up here when there's nothing better to do."

As the story goes, the DNR introduced the fly in order to counteract forest tent caterpillars, a ravenous insect currently defoliating millions of acres across northern Wisconsin, Upper Peninsula Michigan, Minnesota and Canada.

Some even call them "government flies."

Pure nonsense, say DNR officials. They attribute the widespread, stubborn rumor to a dim understanding of naturally recurring events, a general distrust of government and distaste for the wildlife agency in particular.

It is the DNR, after all, that dictates what people may hunt and when, charges fees for fishing, tickets boaters for failing to carry enough life preservers and tells lakeside homeowners how long their docks may be.

"People like to blame us for things, whether it's valid or not," said Tim Mulhern, a DNR forestry supervisor based in Rhinelander.

DNR defenders have a different name for the fly that feasts on caterpillar cocoons, killing the pests in the process. They call them "friendly flies."

Andrea Diss, a Wisconsin DNR entomologist, said she's been buttonholed by people who swear they've seen black DNR vans pull up to forest's edge, swing open their doors and release flies.

Lately, she said, "we graduated to having black helicopters" releasing clouds of insects.

"No kidding," she says. "I don't know why people get these ideas because, for heaven's sake, they've gone into outbreak every 10 years for centuries.

"Thousands of years, millions of years, they've been doing this. Don't people remember this? It's one of those big events in nature. Trees get stripped out and there're caterpillars all over the place and then there's the friendly fly afterwards."

The flies, she says with a little less conviction, are inoffensive. "Except for being, you know, disgusting like a fly, OK?"

Forest tent caterpillars normally exist in small numbers but explode in population every six to 16 years depending on weather and forest conditions.

The outbreaks can seem like a brand-new phenomenon because they strike erratically. The last outbreak in Wisconsin began in 1986, more than 50 miles south of Eagle River. The aspen, oak and birch trees favored by caterpillars usually survive, even when stripped of leaves for a season or more.

After two or three years, the caterpillars eat so many leaves they starve, succumbing to disease in their weakened state. Their huge numbers also trigger a corresponding increase in their natural enemy, flies twice the size of a housefly.

At the peak of an outbreak, one acre of forest contains some 4 million caterpillars. When they spin their cocoons in July, up to 95 percent will serve as host to immature flies, killing the caterpillar larvae and largely solving next year's caterpillar problem.

Both caterpillars and flies are native species that need no interference from humans, DNR officials say.

Though they don't bite, the flies appear in the heat of the day to bask in the sun and alight on boats, cars, beach towels and people.

Sue Teik, manager of Skipper's Harbor Restaurant in Eagle River, has heard nothing but complaints lately.

"Do you know how many people who said they wouldn't have come up here if they knew how bad it is?" she said.

In April, Teik relocated here from Milwaukee. The flies have caused her to second-guess the move.

"They're pestiferous," Teik says. She shoots a sideward glance to puzzled faces. "We looked it up. It's a word."

Bugs in abundance

Of course, the Northwoods has always exacted a price on those who come to fish, canoe, swim or live amid the splendor of sapphire lakes, clear air and fir forests.

Ticks, mosquitoes, biting horseflies all thrive in abundance, not to mention the so-called duck lice that burrow under the skin of swimmers in some lakes. These are well-known hazards that go with the Northwoods territory.

But legions of lumbering, dumb flies that don't bite but just want to be on you? That's a different story. For that, some say, blame must be assessed.

Asked how the flies were treating him, telephone line worker Victor Bellomy, 42, responds without prompting: "Oh yeah. Thank you, Mr. DNR."

At its worst a couple weeks ago, he said, "I had no problem swatting eight flies in one swat."

He proceeds with a common variation on the DNR conspiracy theme. The caterpillars first were introduced to kill a glut of ladybugs (never mind, biologists retort, that caterpillars are vegetarians). Flies were introduced to control the caterpillars.

"We're thinking the next thing they're going to drop is mosquitoes," he says.

Where does this information come from? "Just talk from people," he says. "As far as me knowing a plane went through and dropped them? This I don't know."

Bellomy does know that in the last two years he's seen a lot of caterpillars. Clinging to trees, doorways, outdoor handrails. Devouring broadleaf trees in such numbers you can actually hear a sound some mistake for chomping. Biologists say it's the sound of millions of hard pellets excreted by caterpillars falling from leaf to leaf.

He's seen caterpillars choke roads to the point that driving over them produces a smacking sound like hot tar.

Up in Bayfield on the Lake Superior shore, he said, "you had to be careful coming up to a stop sign because the road was so slippery" with caterpillars.

Now the sudden plague of flies has raised his suspicions. "That makes me think this DNR thing is more prevalent than anybody wants to let on," Bellomy says, his voice lowering. "To get that many flies, somebody had to do something. You don't just flat get a billion of them."

Business owners complain the unfolding natural drama has interfered with outdoor activities like golf and fishing, the lifeblood of summertime tourism. Hyslop, the Eagle River mayor, said local golf courses have aggressively sprayed after putting greens were carpeted with caterpillars.

The flies have driven away no less a fishing enthusiast than Steve Meyer, a 56-year-old clerk at Guide's Choice Pro Shop in Eagle River.

Meyer recalls fishing last week in what was intended to be an all-day outing. The group left after a few hours. "Once the sun came up they were all over your boat and face," he says. "We couldn't take it."

When customers seek help, he says, "I tell them there's nothing you can do." Except wait for the flies to go away in a few weeks.

`Bunch of baloney'

He's heard his fill of DNR stories and dismisses them as "a bunch of baloney." Still, he knows better than to think he can disabuse some people of the story.

"I had a customer start arguing with me that the DNR planted them," he said, recalling the customer's outrage with the government's misguided attempt to "interfere with nature."

"I told him, `Hey, I'm not going to argue with you,' " he says. "But the fact is, it is nature."

He rings up an order of jumbo leeches. "I know people don't trust the government," he says, "But, c'mon!"


Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune”

“Humorous article! I had my first real experience with black flies this past weekend. Nasty little critters!”

“Nasty little critters!

That refer to flies or the DNR?”

“My father-in law just came back from the U.P. He said the flies were so thick, you couldn't venture outside. Yuck!”

“Black flies don't bite? What type bites us in Michigan? I'm gonna try to find a fly identification site...:-)”

“Yep, I've still got scars...

and a picture of all the flies on my pack while in the U.P., if I can ever figure out the scanner here.”

“The Northwoods' lakes need more muskellunges (muskies) to feed on those black flies! The damn tourists from Chicago have just about fished them out. Stock those lakes and keep the tourists away, especially from Anvil Lake!”

“le Subtil - I think it's the Deer and Horse flies that do the damage. I've also seen a bug that looks like a cross between a bee and a fly that bit me perty good about the head.


I have been up in the upper westside of lower Michigan for the past four weekends now and I have to say that this has been the lightest mosquito season I can remeber up there. The flies have not been bad at all either. Maybe that real nice bust of 80 degree weather we had in early May brought out the batch, then got wiped out when the temp dropped down to almost freezing. What ever it was, THANK YOU!”

“The flies in the article are a different species from the biting black fly. These things come out in the LP too. I remember when I was a kid, we had really bad tent caterpillars in the late spring, followed by a summer of these big slow black flies. Drove my mom absolutely nuts, because we had a screen door that didn't close properly. Cat loved 'em, though.”

“I know an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly. Perhaps she'll die?”

“The black flies should consume the person that runs the fish commission in Wisconsin. I fished there once a few years ago and got charged 7 dollars to park the car in a small pull off next to the woods. What a rip. I won't be back.”

“oh man... you can't tell me that black flies dont bite, you can't tell me mosquitoes are worse, you can't tell me horse flies or deer flies are worse, black flies are devil spawn, and nothing better, if not the devil himself. Damn, longsleeve shirt, tight buttons, velcro between buttons, all the way up, bug net, gloves on the hands, long pants, socks over the pants... no matter how hot it is... it's better that way”

“Amen to that, brother. I live in WI and those things are horrible.”

“Eagle River is 25 miles north of me. Last summer was the peak of caterpillars in Rhinelander's surroundings, and yes, the friendly flies have been here in abundance, taking care of the caterpillars, which have generally moved operations north of us, but in much less concentration than 2001. The friendly flies DO NOT bite. They are about 10-times the size of the pest known as "black flies" that are particularly prominant around flowing water, rather than lakes, where mosquitoes and deer flies are more likely. The heat and humidity, accompanied by stupendous thunderstorms with intense downpours, have been much more of a hindrance to outdoor recreation than any bugs so far this summer.

The paranoia expressed in the newspaper article is just symptomatic of the low level of insight many of my fellow northwoods residents and their invited guests (tourists) have into the natural world they are so busy pummeling into submission with their jet skis, snowmobiles, 4-wheelers, supercharged bass boats, monster trucks, and dirt bikes.”