You may have noticed I added a little widget to the sidebar of bartblog. It lets you know what book I’m reading now (as if you want to know). I just finished Walden by Henry David Thoreau last night. I read the ‘Concord Library’ edition with a foreword and some notes by one of my other favorite authors: Bill McKibben (his Deep Economy is a must read).
Walden is one of those books I’ll carry around with me a lot, sort of like a favorite blankie or something. I have a couple other books like that–there’s a good chance you’ll find The Call by Oriah Mountain Dreamer and Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write pretty much every time you snoop in my backpack.
I just started (last night) with a new book. Jaimie brought home Eckart Tolle’s The Power of Now (the book he wrote before he met Oprah), and by the intro and first dozen pages, it is definitely a candidate for the ‘blankie books.’ Jaim’s boss gave all the managers a copy yesterday–Jaim is reading Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, so I jumped her in line to read Tolle. I can’t figure out what could have prompted her to buy that Mars and Venus book…
Happy reading.
A big ass fly.
Jaimie discovered this monster fly on the side of our house this afternoon. I’ve never seen one so huge (that’s my index finger in the photo for scale). Anybody know what it is? C’mon you closet entemologists out there…
Festing.
(photo from jazzfestsiouxfalls.com)
We’re off to JazzFest with the Ver Steegs (and other friends) tonight. That’s Tab Benoit in the picture. He plays at 7:30. Hope to see you there.
bartblog. 
jo n
August 7, 2010 at 11:47 am
Hey,
i was searching all over and finally found your picture of the giant fly. i found the same kind in my driveway and was wondering what it is. couldnt find anything. if you ever found out would you email me what it is. sorry im a nerd like that. these things bother me. have a good one.
-jon
Cameo
August 19, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Everytime my husband and I leave our house it’s like we are dive bombed by those huge flies. I have never seen such huge flies!! The ones here are almost as long as my pinkie finger. I’ve looked everywhere and can’t seem to find out what they are called. If you find out could you please send an email to me, I would greatly appreciate it.
smk
September 1, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Same story here…I just found one of these on one of my window screens. I was searching for any site with “large fly”, “huge fly”, etc and the pic on your site came up. It’s all black body is well over an inch long and it’s wings add another half inch or so. If anyone finds out anything, please let me know as well. Thanks-just curious
LKJ
September 20, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Where are you guys located? I am in Orlando Florida and today I found one on my car…. is like a monster!!! a giant black fly….. are those the Horse flies? hmm I wonder where are they from and why they are so big… Is just so ugly!
joebart
September 21, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hi LKJ. We’re in South Dakota. We do have what we call horse flies around here, but I’ve never seen one that big before or since.
Eddy Impanis
July 6, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Another one landed next to me by our pool in Davie FL. No idea what species though I will continue to search.
Logan
July 22, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Just saw one of these for the first time in my life. It’s hiding between the weatherstripping and my garage service door. Scared the crap outa me.
Like everyone else I found your picture no clue what it is tempted to try to get it in a jar.
South eastern Minnesota.
Mines as large maybe just a touch larger, defiantly the same buldgey neck, wings and limbs.
Horrifying and interesting.
Mike Charleston
July 29, 2011 at 8:35 pm
I live in Micigan. I cut the grass and went inside to watch the Tigers. I kept hearing this strange buzzing noise. There it was sitting on my shirt. Yes i screamed like a little girl. I have never seen anything like it. I hope I dont see any more
Aj
July 30, 2011 at 11:27 am
They say everything’s bigger in Texas right?!?!? . . . . Well Damn, . . never thought they would be talking about flies tho. . . . . Im here in El Paso Tx . . . . . . . And There swarming around my IVY Plans in the front arch-way. . . . . . . . i cant take a step outside without being attacked. . . . . Its Like Flies Mated With Elephants!
Robbie
August 1, 2011 at 8:03 pm
I found this as I was searching to find out what type of fly it was also, and this seems pretty close to me! Black Horse Fly (Tabanus atratus) You can google it and go to images.
bridget
August 5, 2011 at 3:49 am
it really looks like a black horse fly, quite vicious flies the females sucks blood from mammals and animals not sure about humans, but i’d stay away. good luck to those who have these flies.
Jo-ann Kiers
September 3, 2011 at 7:00 pm
We just caught a huge black winged insect that is just as large as my husbands thumb and that my dear friends is big. We caught it in our living room very gently but when we did it made this huge sound that I can’t describe. I’ve looked on the Web Images and there is nothing like it.
Mattie
July 31, 2012 at 12:56 am
For anyone who wanted info about them:
http://eol.org/pages/738417/details
poopsandgiggles
September 6, 2014 at 1:49 pm
Crap, dude! I found your fly pic on google images and thought you were going to tell me what the heck it is. I just caught one (my boys begged me to) and it is roughly the size of an adult human. Or a quarter. We live in Texas, but this is the first time I have seen anything like it.
RuShoneJ
July 26, 2015 at 12:20 pm
So did you find out what kind of fly it is?? It’s 10:30 am, July 2015 here in Texas and I thought I was going outside to paint til I saw that big ass fly on the wall over my porch through the door window(no joke. I was so alarmed by it’s size I typed “big ass flies in Texas” into Google) I’ve never seen one before this big and I live in the country. Not a farm, but out there. So if I did it was in childhood and may have been referred to as a horse fly, but I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to risk it cause I know horse flies bite people sometimes and it hurts… a lot. My boyfriend shooed it away, but now I wish I had caught it… Or killed it! (Sorry fly) But I don’t want it to come back.