Sunday, September 4, 2011

The MONSTER MANKILLER FLIES of Charles City

To state the obvious, there are bugs in Charles City. Lots of bugs. However, there is one bug that is truly noteworthy: the monster mankiller fly. This fly not only bites you, but will take a chunk of flesh out and leave you with a swollen wound the size of a grapefruit. They are so big that they fly into windows and either kill themselves or stun themselves and have to lay on the ground for 15 minutes until they can fly away. They come into season around the beginning of August and "bug" you until Thanksgiving. I present pictures below of the terrible, flying, horror.

I hate you, bug. Close-up of the bug scheming how to get into the house and eat my finger from the kitchen window.

The mankiller fly on our kitchen window.
For scale, I am pointing to the fly with my finger so you can see how big he is. Thank goodness we had a pane of glass between us. Otherwise, I might have lost my finger!