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TIL about the deer fly, a harmless friggin annoyance that can shapeshift into something hard to find on web
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Little1Lost gehirneimer.de Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de
Joined: 2026-05-11
Quote

I found this on my head the second time today, last time i thought it was a spider (with doubts)
So i tried to look for it for like 1-2 hours before i got it finally
But they did not look like the first image because they can shed their wings when finding a suitible host and their wing shed form does get less acssociated with its name.
Its at least harmless because it does not really carry illnesses but it can leave an itchy head for weeks :/
Better than ill at least

95   Original
Nima leminal.space Nima@leminal.space
Joined: 2023-12-08
#2 · Quote Reply

ngl my whole entire-ass body itches after reading that article lol.

12
kamenlady lemmy.world kamenlady@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-24
#3 · Quote Reply

ngl my whole entire-ass body itches after reading that article lol.

On my part my entire ass-body is now itching

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brandon piefed.social brandon@piefed.social
Joined: 2025-06-07
#4 · (edited) Quote Reply

There's another species in the same family that parisitises pigeons. Any who's kept doves will probably be familiar with it. Thankfully those cannot live on humans.

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FoxyFerengi startrek.website FoxyFerengi@startrek.website
Joined: 2025-06-04
#5 · Quote Reply

TIL Idaho is in the Eastern US.

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chicken lemmy.dbzer0.com chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2023-06-30
#6 · Quote Reply

Confusing that they share a name with these evil things

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toofpic lemmy.world toofpic@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-20
#7 · (edited) Quote Reply

Harmless as Lyme-spreading harmless? Also, the bites are quite itchy.
If you love someone chawling under your clothes and in your hair, you're up for a treat:

  • you pass some bush, and now you have 15 new friends
  • in the most WH40K manner, they lose their wings when they find their host (you)
  • they are super sleek, so you can brush over them and think: "hmm, probably fell off"
  • for the first 40 minutes they sit quietly, and then, when you relax, they crawl in deeper, warmer and hairier places
  • even if you find one, they are super tough, so you have to crush them between your fingers, just against body it's usually not enough.

Great guys, love them!

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Tabooki2 lemmy.world Tabooki2@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-03-08
#8 · Quote Reply

Can't stand these buggers. They wreck every nice hike up here. Nasty bites

5
AlphaOmega lemmy.world AlphaOmega@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-20
#9 · Quote Reply

Harmless as Lyme-spreading harmless? Also, the bites are quite itchy. If you love someone chawling under your clothes and in your hair, you're up for a treat: you pass some bush, and now you have 15 new friends in the most WH40K manner, they lose their wings when they find their host (you) they are super sleek, so you can brush over them and think: "hmm, probably fell off" for the first 40 minu...

Lime πŸ‹β€πŸŸ© spreading? I think you mean Lyme.

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blargh513 sh.itjust.works blargh513@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2025-06-07
#10 · Quote Reply

Can't stand these buggers. They wreck every nice hike up here. Nasty bites

Hate those fuckers so much. Fuck those fucking fucks with a fucking lamp post.

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AstralPath lemmy.ca AstralPath@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2023-07-04
#11 · Quote Reply

There's another species in the same family that parisitises pigeons. Any who's kept doves will probably be familiar with it. Thankfully those cannot live on humans.

I feel so bad for pigeons. We relied on them so much in the past and then we just kicked them to the curb and now most people hate them... It makes me sad.

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LibertyLizard slrpnk.net LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
Joined: 2023-06-14
#12 · Quote Reply

Wow I never heard of these assholes. Hope I never make their acquaintance.

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DudeImMacGyver kbin.earth DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth
Joined: 2025-01-11
#13 · Quote Reply

Harmless huh? Spoken like someone who hasn't dealt with them.

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leftzero lemmy.dbzer0.com leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2025-06-08
#14 · Quote Reply

Lime πŸ‹β€πŸŸ© spreading? I think you mean Lyme.

No, lime.

Lime

9
sem piefed.blahaj.zone sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-09-04
#15 · Quote Reply

Lime πŸ‹β€πŸŸ© spreading? I think you mean Lyme.

They are thinking of deer tick not deer fly

5
Little1Lost gehirneimer.de Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de
Joined: 2026-05-11
#16 · (edited) Quote Reply

Harmless huh? Spoken like someone who hasn't dealt with them.

Edit: you may confuse the deer flies im thinking of with the deer flies (yes, thats some nice naming there)
You probably mean those: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_fly
There also seems te be deer ticks which can also be dangerous and adds to the naming confusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis


Meant harmless to human because they do not really carry disease.
I dealt with two and learned mostly about the scarce ressources on web so i dont really have actual experience

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Little1Lost gehirneimer.de Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de
Joined: 2026-05-11
#17 · Quote Reply

They are thinking of deer tick not deer fly

i think they think about booth.
Because the fly does shed its wings and likes hair but according to wikipedia only the ticks carry dangerous disease.
Also booth seem annoying to remove and at least the fly (like lice) seems to needs a bit more force

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis

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Little1Lost gehirneimer.de Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de
Joined: 2026-05-11
#18 · Quote Reply

Confusing that they share a name with these evil things

yes, that made it hard to find after i finally got at least the swedish name and tried to translate it.
I used wikipedia as a translator in the end (open article in different language and chose a language then i understood)

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Starya67 lemmy.world starlinguk@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-17
#19 · Quote Reply

i think they think about booth. Because the fly does shed its wings and likes hair but according to wikipedia only the ticks carry dangerous disease. Also booth seem annoying to remove and at least the fly (like lice) seems to needs a bit more force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis

*Both.

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Tollana1234567 lemmy.today Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
Joined: 2025-06-04
#20 · (edited) Quote Reply

these are called ked flies. its related to bat flies( have 2 lineages specific to bats) which are bizarre flightless ones that parasitizes bats,(which are bizarre and thier evolutionary lineage with the bats.) bed bugs originated from bats, since they also posesses thier own versions.

4
πŸ§Ÿβ€β™‚οΈ Cadaver lemmy.world Ashiette@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-02
#21 · Quote Reply

Edit: you may confuse the deer flies im thinking of with the deer flies (yes, thats some nice naming there) You probably mean those: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_fly There also seems te be deer ticks which can also be dangerous and adds to the naming confusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis Meant harmless to human because they do not really carry disease. I dealt with two...

You obviously have not dealt with them before. They are the devil incarnate. Fast, sleek, robust. They go for places that are hard to reach, they go for the eye. They make the deer fly look like a very mild annoyance. When you think you killed them, they go full Lazarus. They are stealthy.

0/10 very bad experience, will not recommend.

4
Little1Lost gehirneimer.de Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de
Joined: 2026-05-11
#22 · Quote Reply

these are called ked flies. its related to bat flies( have 2 lineages specific to bats) which are bizarre flightless ones that parasitizes bats,(which are bizarre and thier evolutionary lineage with the bats.) bed bugs originated from bats, since they also posesses thier own versions.

thats very good to know

1
Little1Lost gehirneimer.de Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de
Joined: 2026-05-11
#23 · (edited) Quote Reply

You obviously have not dealt with them before. They are the devil incarnate. Fast, sleek, robust. They go for places that are hard to reach, they go for the eye. They make the deer fly look like a very mild annoyance. When you think you killed them, they go full Lazarus. They are stealthy. 0/10 very bad experience, will not recommend.

i assume i got lucky but at least i know that they are only dead when (probably my) blood is spilled. i will never risk pests getting out alive after my experience with head lice

Edit: also i think i got very lucky so im biased and still dont want more exporiences with them

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atan lemmy.ml atan@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-06-02
#24 · Quote Reply

I hiked along some cliffs in Mull where there was a large feral goat population, and was swarmed by these fuckers (we call them deer keds). Absolute nightmare fuel. They would quickly shed their wings and nestle in hair (mostly my beard) or inside clothing. They're really flat and leathery, and cling on for dear life - making them unreasonably hard to remove (they would wriggle free from my fingertips as I tried to prise them off.) I removed several dozen over the day and still found their corpses in my laundry.

The only goats we saw were dead and stinking. On the plus side, the weather was bad enough to mostly keep the midges at bay. Without a doubt, the worst experience I've had in the Western Isles.

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toofpic lemmy.world toofpic@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-20
#25 · Quote Reply

Lime πŸ‹β€πŸŸ© spreading? I think you mean Lyme.

Thanks, sorry, corrected. BBut need to replace the natural flies with gmo flies that spread lime juice.

3
toofpic lemmy.world toofpic@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-20
#26 · Quote Reply

i think they think about booth. Because the fly does shed its wings and likes hair but according to wikipedia only the ticks carry dangerous disease. Also booth seem annoying to remove and at least the fly (like lice) seems to needs a bit more force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis

Ixodes are much more dangerous because in many regions they carry encefalitis. It's also not easy to remove them without a special tool and/or skill

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sem piefed.blahaj.zone sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-09-04
#27 · Quote Reply

Ixodes are much more dangerous because in many regions they carry encefalitis. It's also not easy to remove them without a special tool and/or skill

Tweezers ate more effective than the "tick key" but it does require skill to remove the whole tick without squishing it or otherwise causing it to regurgitate its lyme disease bacteria into you.

2
sem piefed.blahaj.zone sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-09-04
#28 · Quote Reply

i think they think about booth. Because the fly does shed its wings and likes hair but according to wikipedia only the ticks carry dangerous disease. Also booth seem annoying to remove and at least the fly (like lice) seems to needs a bit more force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis

Thanks -- i was paetially confused because the description didn't sound like the deer fly I'm familiar with, Chrysopsinae: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_fly

TIL about this other deer fly!

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toofpic lemmy.world toofpic@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-20
#29 · Quote Reply

Tweezers ate more effective than the "tick key" but it does require skill to remove the whole tick without squishing it or otherwise causing it to regurgitate its lyme disease bacteria into you.

Or leave their fangs in your body and wait until they get out. Yes, I know, unfortunately I've had regular first-hand experience with both types of the biters being discussed

2
404 lemmy.zip 404@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2023-07-23
#30 · (edited) Quote Reply

Where I live we call these elk flies (Γ€lgflugor).

They hate garlic.

When I was a kid my whole class took a trip to the woods and walked through a swarm of them. Thing is, we'd had cooking class the day before, and everyone in the same group as the kid who loved spicy food was unaffected. So 15 of us had to comb them out of our hair while the other 5 watched and laughed.

So just eat spicy food until you ooze of it and you'll be fine.

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DudeImMacGyver kbin.earth DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth
Joined: 2025-01-11
#31 · (edited) Quote Reply

Edit: you may confuse the deer flies im thinking of with the deer flies (yes, thats some nice naming there) You probably mean those: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_fly There also seems te be deer ticks which can also be dangerous and adds to the naming confusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis Meant harmless to human because they do not really carry disease. I dealt with two...

Nah, they are all bastards. We've met.

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topherclay lemmy.world topherclay@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-01-28
#32 · Quote Reply

TIL Idaho is in the Eastern US.

If you go to the "talk" tab for that page, then only comment in the history of that page is about that same error. I'm curious if the error comes straight from the cited source.

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Little1Lost gehirneimer.de Little1Lost@gehirneimer.de
Joined: 2026-05-11
#33 · Quote Reply

Where I live we call these elk flies (Γ€lgflugor). They hate garlic. When I was a kid my whole class took a trip to the woods and walked through a swarm of them. Thing is, we'd had cooking class the day before, and everyone in the same group as the kid who loved spicy food was unaffected. So 15 of us had to comb them out of our hair while the other 5 watched and laughed. So just eat spicy food u...

thats glorious news (because its supporting my favorite foods)

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