PREDATORS OF GREAT NOBILITY AND STEALTH

There’s a cold, misty rain blowing around here on the writing porch so I’m pretending I’m on the deck of an ocean bound ship just off the coast of Labrador. It’s too misty to have even seen Newfoundland as we passed. Arrrr. 

The horses are out in the pasture happily eating grass without flies bothering them. Flies hate the rain. It’s quite empty of any insects here on the deck of the ship too which makes me wonder… I love bugs, but until ten years or so ago I had no love for flies. Most people don’t, which I get. Especially here and in places where black fly season is a reality and in general flies are hated with a passion. Biting insects are a scourge, no question, but I had to rethink my feelings about flies seeing as I am a longtime dedicated reader of Lynda Barry, who has a great deal of compassion for them and includes them in her writing and drawing a lot. 

Barry is a creative hero of mine, and a huge, positive influence. She also came up in Western Washington and when I was a young teen I loved seeing her comics and drawings in “The Rocket” which was the music and culture weekly in the region. “Poodle With A Mohawk” is legend. She is famous for her comics; Ernie Pook's Comeek, her books featuring the adventures of the greatly beloved Marlys and Maybonne, her many books on the art and mystery of channeling creativity such as “What It Is.” (which I HIGHLY recommend!) I think it’s Barry’s ocean-sized compassion that keeps me wrapped up in her stories and flies get treated as well as everyone else which made me think. I became comfortable with Tachinid flies (commonly known as Hover Flies) walking on my hands as I write in my journal on the porch. They probe my skin looking for moisture and it tickles but they are so polite and even elegant that I let them hang out. They are good pollinators and eat plant pests like aphids. Like anyone they aren’t all good, some feed on the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies too, but it’s not their fault humans have sent them to the brink of extinction. They just have no idea. 

I thought about other flies I like, and this will sound strange (and probably gross to most of you) but there are these beautiful gold-copper flies that hang out on fresh horse poop who blow away in little gold clouds when you get too close. They are called Yellow Dung flies, which were not so easy to search up and ID. They don’t bite (me or the horses) and are good recyclers of poop. They look very velvety and eat, of course, tachinid flies. I finally found one great description in The Guardian of a naturalist describing the scene; “the dung fly eats the tachinid as one would hold and devour a hotdog.” A searing read. I’m sure you aren’t wondering why it’s so hard to google species of flies but the first things that pop up are long lists of exterminators. Maybe that doesn’t seem odd, but if you try to find info about any other insect (which I often do) you can find nature identification websites solely devoted to a single species identifying their traits and markings and habits… even wasps! Google “moth” and the butterfly’s less glamorous relative has tons of glorious info! Not so the fly. We are quite prejudiced when it comes to them. I wanted to look up more of the fly species that I see around here but no dice, just more exterminators. Since my incredible two inch thick insect guide burned up in the fire I was shit out of luck, so I only have two for you, but hey… it’s two more than I used to have!

What maligned creatures are you softening your heart for?

**Not a meeting of the fly fan club