Flies

Hey all!
I have noticed that this spring my firewood stacks have attracted alot of big ugly black flies. My stack is a mix of walnut, maple,ash, oak.
What gives?

I noticed the same thing on the pile of logs in my driveway. I'm interested in this too.

My son noticed that on our latest pile of fresh cut/split oak/maple. No idea why either. Very weird.

Flies are attracted to the sap much the same as they are attracted to ....some other stuff. They will go away pretty fast as the sap dries.

Ja, the sugars in the sap and heat from the sun.

Makes sense to me. They were all congregating on only one or two logs, so those must have been the juiciest ones... ;-)

They love fresh cut piss oak... I get em here all the time..

Ray

That ain't so bad....

My woodpile attracts scorpions and copperheads. Staring down a snake at eye level will get your blood flowing.


LeftyScott

Mystery of life solved. I can sleep now. Thanks guys!

I posted this in the gear forum, but I'll put it here, as well. This is my copperhead bite from August of 2008.

That looks painful. Glad I dont have that problem here.

It hurt pretty bad. The initial bite was like an extremely powerful hornet or wasp sting - that sharp, burning, almost "metallic" feeling sting/pain. The swelling was terrible the first week. The worst part was hobbling to the bathroom to urinate. Just when you finally got a good stream going, you'd bang your foot against the commode, cut off, and have to wait to start again. Total frustration. This year I plan on avoiding this!

ONLY thing worse than a snake in the wood pile is 2 snakes in the wood pile! hh:

ouch

I sure am glad we don't have any poisonous snakes around here (I know someone is gonna argue this, but I think it is like the Pine causes chimney fires myth or the Jersey Devil) But we do have some ornery black snakes which seem to like to strike rather than run! Scares the crap out of me every time!

How long did the healing process take?

I was on crutches for about 2 solid weeks. I wasn't really "better" for a month, though. I'd say at the end of the first month, I was back to about 90%. The last time any tightness or swelling bothered me was mid October of 2008, which was about 2.5 months after the bite.

I'm guessing you wear boots out there now...

If it were me I'd have boots up to my knees, my chainsaw helmet and visor, and welding gloves after your experience. Or maybe a suit of armor!

Basically I was bitten due to a foolish mistake: becoming too passive with a bad habit. I was walking out past sunset with no flashlight, wearing a pair of flip flops to throw some watermelon rinds into the edge of the woods. I can't count the number of times in my life I've gone out after dark in a poor pair of shoes or with no light. As fortune (or misfortune) would have it, this time being lax bit me - literally.

Good plan.

Its overall effectiveness remains to be seen, however...

Wow..... that looks painful. A few years ago I got bit just above the knee by a brown recluse. No initial pain...... but about 12 hours later I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like someone was beating me in the leg with a bat.
I was very lucky going to a dr. that knew what she was doing. I was hobbled for a month.