Ethiopia is full of flies. Stand still and they will land in the corner of your eyes, on your lips, in your ears. Once, I was interviewed by ETV (the Ethiopian national TV) and when I saw myself on TV all I could see was a ferenji swatting flies away from his face. Not coincidentally, one of the fly species is called ‘eye-seeking fly’ (Musca sorbens), the scientist naming this species undoubtedly as irritated by its habit as I was.
After a while in the field you think ‘the only good fly is a flat fly’.
But a recent publication in Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, by Teshome Fetene and Netsanet Workub of Gondar University, presents some savvy facts about flies and made me revise this flat-fly hypothesis. Apparently, the buzzers are not only loaded with crap on the outside, they are even more dirty on the inside. Fly guts are stuffed with human intestinal parasites (such as hookworms, tapeworms and amoebas), and flattening flies with your bare hands is literally equal to opening Pandora’s box and having a bath in it.
The best solution: go low-tech and get yourself one of these horsetail fly-swatters for field work.
All-Terrain Horsetail Hair Fly Swatter™
Ugh, that will make me think twice about flattening flies. Scorpions, however, will still be flattened in the traditional manner, with shoe or bucket or whatever else is available.
My horses, of course, have such flyswatters as standard equipment, and much of the year they must decide between standing in the shade of a mesquite or live oak tree (more flies), or in the direct sunlight (fewer flies). They usually opt for the shade, but then they stand head to tail, so they can keep the flies off each others’ faces and ears. My old bay gelding would often smack me across the face with his tail when I groomed him or put his tack on … perhaps he thought I was being plagued by flies. Or perhaps it was revenge – that one hated having polo wraps on his hindlegs.