I just got stared down and pushed out of my garden by a horsefly.

[Baitball Blogger]

If there is one insect that I give generous distance to, it is a horsefly. I know how mean and territorial they can be. And, unlike a bee, they don't die after the first sting.

This time around, I was minding my own business, fertilizing some bonsai junipers when two huge yellow and black flying insects began to circle me. At first i thought they were those huge carpenter wasps, that can get up to two or three inches. These two were much smaller, at about an inch and a quarter. I stayed put, thinking they would satisfy their curiosity, and fly away. But they didn't. So, I got up and walked away and they let me.

So, I came back a few seconds later when I thought they left.

And then it got crazy.

I was sitting on a garden scooter and one of them came back. He took a position on the top of a juniper, just a foot away from me. I looked at it, and watched as he slowly turned and positioned himself in a way that his eyes were dead on me. I casually looked away and froze. Five minutes went by. I glanced back a few times just to confirm he wasn't moving from his position. In fact, his eyes were examining me like he was trying to assess weak points. That was it. I was the first to blink.

I casually got up and walked away and the sob followed me the forty feet to the patio, where only the screened patio stopped the advance.

What the hell? Those two little dweebs were just passing through. I was no threat to them. What set them off?

[Srkdqltr]

1. The bites are very nasty.

[Pobeka]

2. I thought horseflies bite, not sting, and they are looking for a good chunk of flesh too.

Hate those things. But I have killed a few in my day with a lucky smack on my head. A little satisfaction in those smacks...

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Sting, bite. It hurts like shit.

[lastlib]

13. One of my favorite tricks from my farming days....

...was to catch a horsefly, and stick a little piece of straw up its arse end....And. Watch. It. Squirm.!

Call me a mean little kid, but I hated those things, and wasn't the least bit above torturing them a little. Fortunately, it didn't carry over into dealing with mammals, birds, or reptiles (with the notable exception of repuglikans, who I don't mind inflicting some hurt on--I call it getting even for the torture they've done me and my fellow countrymen.)

[MiHale]

3. Shoulda smacked one...

If anything just to see if they’re drones sent to spy on you, or using you for a proof of concept.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. I think they were attracted by the fertilizer.

I just read that they like manure.

[Marthe48]

6. Where the heck do you live?

Wasps 2 or 3"? Do they carry small children away?

[Baitball Blogger]

7. They are pretty big and i thought they were called carpenter wasps because

they'll bore into deadwood, but I couldn't come up with information on the internet.

[Marthe48]

8. I've got carpenter bees that have drilled into my shed walls

They send guards out that hover right at eye level if I am using the shed. I don't bother them. We have yellow jackets that are very aggressive, luckily haven't seen them around the last few summers. I think the biggest insect I've seen are the cicada killers, but they are mild mannered.

[lastlib]

14. We've recently had carpenter bees that burrow into a dying maple tree in the yard....

I love swatting them with a tennis racket!

[Marthe48]

16. My husband would bat wasps away from the hummingbird feeders

The hummers loved him I am more live and let live. Whatever is out there is welcome to it

[TomWilm]

9. I was chased out of my garden by a dragonfly ...

... he was doing WW2 attack raids against me. They get were protective when they are nesting.

[Chainfire]

10. If you like, I will box up a bunch of our mosquitos, and put them in the mail; they eat horseflies.

There was juvenile mosquito, just yesterday, down at my barn, standing flatfooted propositioning a turkey. Instead of using insect repellent, we carry around anchors, it doesn't help with the bites, but it keeps them from flying off with our dead bodies. Everybody deserves a nice burial...

[lastlib]

15. (you must have some of them skeeters that have to file FAA flight plans....)

I've dealt with them in Minnesota--MUCH larger than our little Missouri skeeters.

[frogmarch]

11. One got me on the forehead in 2001, and

I still have a sebaceous cyst from it that keeps coming back and filling up with sebum and pus, even after I have it removed - six times so far.

Effing horseflies.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Mean suckers.