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Mosquitoes might maul your ankles, black flies will gnaw your ears, ticks can transmit debilitating diseases, but a hoard of swarming deer flies? They’ll drive you insane—and drive you out of the woods. That’s a problem for deer hunters who are trying to get their summer chores done right now.
In my opinion, the month of July is the best for trimming shooting lanes and hanging cameras and stands. It allows you to disrupt your deer hunting area with plenty of time for the deer to get settled back down before the season starts. The only downside of doing work in the woods now is the bugs.
And with that, I offer you Steve Stanley’s ingenious and redneck (in a good way) deer fly helmet. It’s simply a hardhat, painted blue, with a fly tape wrapped and taped around it. The concept is simple: Flies are attracted to blue so they buzz the hardhat and get stuck in the tape before they are able to target your face.
“Just wanted to leave a tip that’s changed my hatred for summertime scouting,” Stanley wrote in a post shared on the Wisconsin Rut Report Facebook group. “It literally changed me from dreading going into the summer woods doing stand work and food plots to enjoying it without swatting and fighting flies the entire time. I’d love to see everyone do it. It would at least put a small dent in their population.”
Stanley’s photo is proof that it works. If you’re thinking to yourself: that looks goofy, I’m not wearing that. Well, then you’ve probably never sat in your truck trying to hype yourself up to hang one more stand for the day while a cloud of bloodthirsty deer flies swarmed just outside the door. It’s about getting work done that will pay off in the fall, not trying to look cool.
Besides keeping the flies out of your face, it’s not a bad idea to wear a hardhat while you’re running a chainsaw, trimming limbs, or hanging stands. Thanks for sharing your invention, Steve. Internet: 1, Deer Flies: 0