I finally tried one of those suggestions that come within the abundance of friendly e-mails sent my way. For the past few days, I've had a dryer sheet in one of my pockets while out in the yard and I've not seen a black fly since. A neighbor, who was dog walking this afternoon and paused to say hi, was frustratedly waving the flies away from herself as we talked. She was in the street. I was next to my flower bed. There were no flies near me at all. The mosquitoes still come but not until dusk, as usual. So, I think where the flies are concerned, this dryer sheet thing actually works.
As for the opposite of this, when a friend came last week to see the irises, she had to admit she was wearing perfume. Never in my life have I seen so many black flies as we did on that day. We were forced to continue our visiting inside.
