Dragonflies

I have always loved dragonflies - for all the usual reasons that dragonfly lovers do. But I especially love them since I worked out at the marsh. It wasn't all fun and games out there. Somedays the work was hard. Sometimes the weather was too cold, too rainy, too hot, too windy and all the other ways weather is. Equipment would break down. Co-workers would slack off or bitch and complain. Trees would fall over unexpectedly. Lightning was a special danger. But the WORST, most horrible condition of all was the deer fly hatch. We had horse flys too, which were much bigger and bit much harder, but there were far fewer of those. The deer fly hatch was horrible. Some marshes didn't seem to have as many. And like any other species, a variety of conditions come into play. But when the conditions were good for deer flies, it meant it was bad for us.
The main hatch lasted about two weeks. You would see and feel them before and after that, but the hatch was unbelieveably horrible when it was bad. Imagine THOUSANDS of biting flies swarming around your head, biting through your clothing in every conceivable place. I know it was literally thousands around me because I could see thousands around my co-workers. Buzzing all around you. Flying behind your glasses and biting near your eyes. Flying in your nose and mouth. Constant and unforgiveable. Agony.
I wore a big scarf over my head, which helped a little. The only place I did not get bitten was where my leather gloves and my rubber boots were. We tried EVERYTHING. All we could do was cover up in multiple layers of clothing and endure it. Now mind you, the hatch is in the heat of summer. When it's the hotest. It really sucked.
One day during the worst part of the worst hatch, it was too miserable to work with handtools. The temperature was around 98 degrees F and it was too hot to be trying to swat at flies all day. The foreman had us using the cats to haul the loaded boats back to the landing where other crew members were using equipment to unload the moss and push it into piles.
I was far out on a rather dry marsh and these cleat tracks cats go pretty slow when you're on a marsh, because you don't want to damage the marsh by spinning it up. You just want to cruise along slowly. The flies were demonic. I was miserable. I was covered in welts from the days before. I hate flies and their nation into perpetuity because of those days.
I was vehemently cursing them and worthlessly swatting at them, when I happened by a small stand of tamarak trees near the woods. Suddenly (as in Poof!) all the flies were gone. I looked up and saw 60-70 medium-sized dragonflies flying around me. There hadn't been thousands of flies just then, merely a few hundred. But to have them completely gone, was an amazement.
They came back about 20 yards later as I moved away from the tamaraks. I continued on, hooked the chain on the boat to my cat and went back right by the tamaraks. Tah! Dah! My lovely, beloved, wonderful warrior-bug friends came back out and deleted more of the hated fly hoard. They stayed with me, all around me for a few moments, caught their fill and retreated back to whence they came.
I was joyous! I was ecstatic! Yippe Kye Yeah! Hell Yeah! I had support!
The rest of that what had been a horrible day was much the same. Every time I went near there, my buddies came out and ate some flies. I was a regular dragonfly deli. After that, I noticed them everywhere, going about their daily feast, but not in the same numbers as my special spot on the far side of the marsh. Yes, I still suffered. That day and for days yet to come. I still itched. I was still hot and covered in welts. But my attitude was much better. Just about the end of that hatch, we completed our harvest on that marsh and moved to another. Only to come there right at the beginning of the hatch there. But, all things being relative, it was NOTHING like what we had just been through. Totally tolerable.
We got a new guy after we moved there, and he was dumbfounded why we didn't think the flies were all that bad. We tried to tell him what we had endured previously. But he just didn't get it.
I still hate flies and their nation into perpetuity. And I still love dragonflies. Always will...