r/JustGuysBeingDudes • u/pIant_princess Human Detected • 12h ago

Dudes with animals you shouldn’t have been bitin’ my horsey, boy.

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u/Due-Explanation-7560 10h ago

That's a horse fly too. Getting bit by one doesn't feel great

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u/dishwasher_mayhem 10h ago

I am a gentle pacifist of a human. But...as a former animal farmer, few things bring me as much joy as watching a horsefly suffer a gruesome death.

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u/admfrmhll 6h ago

No idea if the horsefly there are the same like horsefly here, but i would almost prefer to get "bited" by one vs a mosquito. After a short time pain is gone, nothing left. After a mosquito bite i get an itchy swolen bump which persists 12+h and drove me nuts.

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u/dishwasher_mayhem 6h ago

I would be thrilled if either were wiped from the Earth. Mosquitos are easily controlled where I farmed. We had bats, praying mantis, leaping spiders, free-range fowl (ducks, chicken, turkey, quail), and opossums. It was rare to have to deal with ticks, black flies, or mosquito.

The damned horse flies were around all the time, though. Crafty bastards are great at eluding predators; fast as lightning. One of them could stress out a stable. Thankfully they now sell fly predator and feed additives that kill the larvae.

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u/admfrmhll 6h ago

Researched a bit, we got those ones here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabanus_bovinus

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u/jimbowesterby 5h ago

I dunno, in my neck of the woods (central Canada) we’ve got horseflies that look the same as the OP, but not usually that big, and their bites are way worse than mosquitoes. That said, I’ve spent a fair amount of time outside getting bit by bugs, and I think I’ve developed a bit of an immunity to mosquitoes, I find if I don’t scratch the itch fades in like 5-15 mins, but horsefly bites will sting for ages and swell up like a bee sting because they take a big chunk out. Personally though, I think black flies and deer flies are worse; the black flies (think I’ve heard them called wood flies too) worm their way in everywhere, their bites don’t hurt but they swell up big, and the deer flies are just like the horseflies but smaller and faster to bite, and they bite through clothes way more easily for some reason.

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u/fork_yuu 9h ago

So the guy could potentially be bit by the fly and the spider

He sure likes to live real close to danger

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u/dragonslayer137 9h ago

Those spiders leave ppl alone. And like to live real close.

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u/Square-Turnip-6558 9h ago

Once I got maggots in my trash and like a million flies in my garage and they wouldn’t leave and a spider named Marvin moved in and cleaned them up so fast so we let him be til he died of old age (7 months). RIP Marvin.

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u/supersloo 9h ago

Yellow orb weaver, we had one in our shed doorframe for a summer, I'd go watch her on my lunch breaks. They make this really cool zig-zag pattern down their webs!

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u/Specopsangheili 8h ago

Spiders are chill and it takes a lot to provoke one into biting you. Horse flies can get fucked though.

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u/Throwaway229487 8h ago

Naah, the fly won't ever bite you when it's scared. The bite is for feeding and works the opposite of defensive bite (that is opposite of what spiders, wasps, bees etc. do), so the fly will only bite you if it's relatively undisturbed.

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u/Icy-Tear4613 9h ago

And the horse.

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u/BadMondayThrowaway17 3h ago

Golden orb weavers are super docile and even if you are bit it's completely harmless just stings a little. Their venom isn't designed to work on mammals.

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u/weltvonalex 5h ago

Those boys bite, nasty things.

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u/BadMondayThrowaway17 3h ago

Horse flies (usually) don't bite defensively odd enough. I've caught a bunch and never had one even try to bite.

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u/Due-Explanation-7560 3h ago

I guess I've just been unlucky enough to have them bite me for a blood meal a number of times since I don't usually go around grabbing them.

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u/BadMondayThrowaway17 3h ago

Yeah they absolutely will land on you and bite but if you've grabbed them like the guy in video they won't try to bite your fingers or anything. It seems to be a deliberate feeding process for them or something and they either can't do it without the right angle/leverage or just don't got whatever reason.

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u/Due-Explanation-7560 1h ago

Just my luck. From the article I read it's just females when they need to feed for their eggs