Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Darn Flies!!!!

The flies of the  Outback are probably the worst thing that one has to experience there.  You never get used to them, however there are some tricks that will give you a little respite.

One workable escape is during the heat of the day, if you can find some deep shade...Yes it is possible...It may be a Prickly Acacia tree in full leaf or even a shed of some kind, this is where the flies do not enter.  The bright sunlight to the shade confuses them and they stay on the fringes waiting to mob you when you come out.

The above is only useable when you are having a break, when the work is on so are the flies, especially around sheep or cattle yards, although cattle yards with the moving hooves, do tend to put up a nice manure smelling dust screen of sorts, so that then you do not have so many flies to worry about, only the meat ants crawling up your trouser legs looking for something that resembles the item you have just cut out of a bullock, ifn'  ya' know what I mean.

It is said that this is why men of the Outback are constantly checking their crotch.  It is a worry if you see hoards of ants snigging a large ova, meaty object back to their nest and you have recently felt some of these ants up your trouser legs, hence the crotch check, and apparently, if becomes a habit.

There are many expressions about the flies, here a few clean  ones:

Talking about the smart young Jackaroo, "There's no flies on him."  answer, "No, but you can see where they've been."

"Bloody flies, ya' kill one and fifty-thousand come to the funeral."

About a woman with morning sickness:"She's either pregnant or has just swallowed a fly."  Honestly, they both have the same effect on a girl. well sort of!!

It is the bane of the stockman, or anyone else for that matter, who is inclined to have their mouth open when the flies are about, to swallow a fly, or for a fly just to fly in and hit the tonsils and fly back out again...The inclination is that you  have definitely swallowed the critter, and it makes you gag.  It ain’t nice but it teaches you to talk like a ventriloquist.

The March Fly, those secret stealth bombers that swoop in on to the back of your neck, or any bare flesh, are the ones I really hate,  they sting, they leave an itchy spot, and they can cause a normally quiet horse to buck like mad.

The blue tailed fly, originally from Africa, are the worst.  This useless insects are responsible for more deaths in the sheep population in Australia than any other form of 'disease'.  Sheep have a high pain threshold, and the only way you can tell if they are in severe pain is by them lifting the top lip in an agonizing grimace.  The fly will lay maggots in the fleece, at the rear end of the sheep that has become dirty and wet  because of an  over growth of wool, and this laying will turn into a colony of thousands that will eat flesh, and infect the area that becomes moist with the early strike,  it is a horrible, sad sight to see, and a horrible sad job to treat the sheep.

I guess there is a place for all insects in the world, but flies, I'm buggered, if I can see what they are good for!!!!

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