Maine residents are being eaten alive by black flies -- and they have environmentalists to thank.
Residents and tourists have long steeled themselves against the flies' annual warm-weather onslaught, sometimes duct-taping pant legs and wearing screened hoods to keep the deceptively small bugs from delivering bloody bites or crawling into seemingly every body crevice.
But there are now more black flies in more places in Maine, and the reason may be surprising: It's the success of the environmental movement.
Many species of the gnat-sized insects are sticklers for cleanliness. When Maine's rivers were filled with contaminants from paper mills and other industries, only the hardiest black flies laid eggs in them. Now, rivers and streams are progressively cleaner, providing ideal breeding grounds for the annoying pests.
It's an unintended barometer of good ecological health, but Maine officials are adamant they will not mess with nature in any way to provide relief.
"They can be so thick you breathe them in and they get stuck in your throat. They even get under your eyelids," said Julia Brilliott, an Eastport resident who showed off four lumpy red welts on the back of her neck after climbing Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park last week.
The solution?: Maine plans none. In fact, it intends to keep the black flies around:
Some states, such as Pennsylvania, heavily control black flies. Officials there spend about $6 million a year treating 47 rivers and streams with a bacteria whose naturally occurring toxin kills black fly and mosquito larvae. Pennsylvania officials say the bacteria, called Bti, are not harmful to humans, mammals, birds, fish, plants, and most aquatic organisms.
Maine officials say they won't use it, however. The rivers were polluted enough in the past, and officials refuse to put anything else in them unless it's to solve a human health crisis.
Doing nothing is not a tenable position for the long run. Maine residents are not going to put up with being bitten every spring and summer or having to dress in hazmat suits to go out of the house.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, aggressive blackbirds are dive-bombing and pecking pedestrians and bicyclists. Shark attacks on humans may also be increasing.
Clean rivers are good, but there's a point at which environmental extremism can be very painful and expensive. We can't save every biting fly, every shark, every aggressive bird, and every mountain lion on the planet. There will eventually be a backlash.
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