“Australian fossils show that flies have been around for about 41 million years, which means that flies bothered even the first human.
“Blackflies swarmed my neck and back as John and I paddled closer to the island. They bit through my T-shirt, leaving my lower back looking like what Jenny would later describe as 'bubbling lasagna.' 'I now first began to be seriously molested by the black fly,' Henry wrote on July 27, the day he arrived on Pillsbury Island. 'A very small but perfectly formed fly of that color, about one tenth of an inch long, which I first felt, and then saw, in swarms about me, as I sat by a wider and more than usually doubtful fork in this dark forest path. The hunters tell bloody stories about them.'
“I gripped the giant DEET can and sprayed it across my arms and legs as if I were trying to block in a solid color of spray paint. The repellent replaced the sweet, piney scent that was wafting over the lake. Now I only smelled chemicals. 'They would not alight on the part thus defended,' Henry wrote after applying his own bug repellent. 'It was composed of sweet oil and oil of turpentine, with a little oil of spearmint, and camphor. However, I finally concluded that the remedy was worse than the disease. It was so disagreeable and inconvenient to have your face and hands covered with such a mixture.'
“John shared Henry’s view. He didn’t want DEET on his skin, and he didn’t get bitten almost at all.”
