death to black flies
i have survived the week of the devil children and the week of nonstop rain. however, blackflies may be the last straw. they follow you in a cloud when you walk, so that when you stop, they can catch up to you and find an exposed piece of flesh to gnaw on. they have these big mandibles like tusks, which they slash back and forth on you, all the while spitting in an anti-coagulant and numbing agent into the gash. you don't know they've gotten you until later, when you feel a huge crust of blood on you, sometimes it has dripped down. Then, the whole thing swells up to about the size of a golf ball and lasts about 2 weeks. bug nets are the only thing that stops them, but sometimes you forget you have the bug net on and try to feed yourself through it and it's embarassing. and looking at everything through a haze of greenish squares makes you dizzy after a while. the natives say that 2 warm nights in a row kills the larvae. they can't take the warmth. what kind of evil insect thrives on cold temperatures? blackflies, that's what.