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Deer flies wait under vegitation for a host to happen by. It uses its sight for detection but it also uses carbon dioxide and odor to detect prey. Moving objects dark in color are its main objective. The peak of attack time is just after sunrise and for three hours after. A second attack time is two hours before sunset and some time after. The mandibles and maxillae penetrate the skin of prey in a scissor-like action. Anticoagulants are pumped into the skin to thin the blood. Some pathogens can be spread if the fly is disturbed and moves to another host. Horse flies not deer flies have been known to trasmit anthrax. Fly attacks on livestock result in lowered milk production making flies expensive for ranchers. Estemated damage for livestock in 1976 was at 40 million dollars. one perticular ranch in Kentucky lost an abverage of 100 lbs per animal due to tanabids. It is not uncommon to see up to 100 flies on a single animal. Twenty to thirty flies feeding for 6 hours are capable of extracting 100cc of blood. |
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