flies per person????

How many are you allowed have ?

Steve ,when we were there last Sunday week the flies in /around Birdsville was not that bad they were still pesky though,BUT out at The Diamantina whew the blasted things would try & carry you away they were that thick.They did not start 'till about 8 in the morning till dark at night & there was other places as well i can't remember now.Bob.

You'll be fine.
Go in April or October and theres often heaps. This time of the year is good - usually don't see them until you get into the cattle country.

Hi there,

This time of the year the flies, if they arrive, arrive at about 11am and go by three. Not that those we see are very many. No need for fly nets or what ever.

As the POMS say just boring blue skys.

Cheers from

Ian @ Mt Dare

Last in September they were bad, so bad in fact that meals could not be had out of the car or after dark. A sample,



It helps to have a fly veil.

Kind regards

one learns to speak thru the side of ones lips very quickly when theres lotsofem

There is kind of the phenomenon with flies this year in the desert...
The might be heaps of flies during the day when the sun is shining. When there
is sunset or about to sunset all flies magically disappear, only to appear again
sometimes after sunrise....

Up there week before last , and very low count - zero most times.

Temps 0-15c

As we moved further north from Poeppels, found no flies no mosies no sandflies
no moisture.

So little insect life that I convinced my wife to sleep out under stars no tents even
in the Hay river , river bed sand.

Her main concern was snakes, but I sprayed the edges of our thermorests
with aeroguard.

I made a delibrate showing of the spraying , and this keeps away twice as
many snakes.

Robin Miller

These massive High pressure systems have been bringing very low temps to the interior overnight. Even here in Nully it has been below 5 degrees a few times - Hardly a fly to be seen i would imagine the colder interior temps of the simpson would really have sorted them out

Don't worry about the flies - more tourists than flies at the moment. Temps are 3 degrees overnight and max of 18 if lucky with sneaky SE/NE sneaking around. Even working hard and running around still wearing football jersey with sleeveless flak jacket. Except for Diamantina Lakes - they are 1,000:1(human) there.

All these replies about flies.............................sorry, didn't mean that to rhyme, but has anyone considered there may be a temperature related event happening?

I certainly am not an entomologist, however I recall that the moult/hatch from pupae to adult is at 17 degrees C.

Explins a fair bit, does it not?

Also for what it's worth, the flies have always been there. Before the first bovine or ovine, travellers remarked about the flies in a simailar way to the observations on this thread.

Some folk blame the cattle dung, citing the dung pat as a site that can ebable a rise in fly populations. Is there any evidence to support this is the arid lands?

Cheers

I was in the Simpson a week ago, there were no flies except for Purni bore and Dalhousie. Take warm sleeping gear, most nights the temperature got down or close to zero.

The French line was very busy, but we returned on the Rig road and Warburton track (west to east) and in five days saw only one group of three cars.

Enjoy your trip.