So sometimes when I am out walking my two labs everything goes right - not to hot or too cold, and a slight breeze to keep the darn bugs away - at least the flying kind. The ticks have slowed down. They're still around, but instead of pulling off 15 to 20 a day on the dogs, I find one or two a week. We can handle that. It's really interesting what the "experts" say about removing those ticks. You are supposed to get a pair of tweezers and be very, very careful so you get the head out. Well, let these people remove 20 or 30 ticks a day. You get to the point where you grab the little suckers and pull. The whole tick, including the head comes out. You just have to be smarter than the tick.

Wood ticks are indeed annoying but at least they don't fly. Here in central Minnesota, once the wood ticks slow down, the deer flies creep in and take their place. And deer flies are no ordinary fly. They are huge and shaped like little stealth planes. Deer flies also come at you in swarms. There is never just one or two, there are dozens. They fly around your head, arms and any exposed skin. And these suckers bite hard!

I believe these things have it out for me. The past several weeks they ignore the dogs and head right for me. I had one fly into my mouth, one go down my shirt and then there was the little bugger that was buzzing my head and I smacked him a good one. Later that day I found a dead deer fly in my hair. There is nothing more creepy than having that feeling that there is some bug hiding out in your hair. At least there is one deer fly that won't be bothering me anymore.