How An Insect’s Lifecycle Can Clue You Into What it Is

A Fly Swarmed Us Not a Mite

4 min readJun 14, 2021

Infested by Biting Flies Not Chicken Mites

For the first 15 years after my then partner and I were swarmed by tiny biting insects, I thought the parasitic insects were chicken mites — Dermanyssus gallinae. Much of the literature available on the internet focused on people with mite infestations sourced from birds. As the bugs who swarmed us came from birds on the balcony where we lived in Vancouver, BC, it was a logical conclusion to believe they were mites.

First Observation

The first time I saw the tiny insect that had swarmed us was when we were eating lunch in a restaurant in downtown near where we lived. We were still in the throes of the immediate aftermath of the swarm. The sun cascaded through the high tree branches that reached over the building — one of the few buildings around that branches could reach over among the downtown skyscrapers. The sun streamed in the restaurant’s tall windows, and although my now ex-partner sat mostly in shadow, the lower left quadrant of her face was brightly lit by sunlight. It was in this sun spot I saw the winged insect that had infested us. I thought it was a mite, but back then I did not know that mites do not have wings.

Its wings were spread out wide, and I could not see its body; only the wings were visible (aside from how it moved, of course). Each wing was about 2 mm x 2 mm, making the whole insect look about 2 mm long and 4 mm wide. I could tell its length from its width by the direction it moved when it walked on her face. From my point-of-view, the fly looked rectangular in shape.

I remember the otherworldly feeling I had when I saw the insect holding it’s wings out seeming to catch the sunlight; they seemed like two solar panels extended from a satellite. I felt certain it was seeking warmth. The creature’s wings looked like polished hematite, shining and glinting while reflecting the sunlight like a mirror.

I told my ex-partner there was one on her face but not to worry that I would get it. Using my napkin I reached over to wipe it away from where it lingered by the corner her mouth, like a mother would wipe away dribble from a child’s mouth. I continued eating my meal as if I had dispensed with the insect. That early into the swarm aftermath, I naïvely believed that it was easy to catch them.

When I looked up from my lunch a moment later, however, I saw another one very near where I just wiped away the first. I told her there was another, and I went after it in the same fashion. This time, I did not see another appear for the remainder of the meal. But I remember thinking that they — what I thought were two insects — had been trying to soak up the sun rays that illuminated that part of my ex-partner’s face.

Years of Observations

It was only much later that I figured out that the second fly was likely the same individual as the first, having simply eluded my attempts to capture it. It probably hopped up, avoiding my hand by flitting into the air just before I tried to wipe it with the napkin, then landing back where it had jumped from after my hand moved away. Like a shorebird lifting off a shoreline and hovering in the air, only to return to the sand after the chasing dog has passed.

The ability of these insects to elude capture is notable, like those shorebirds evading dogs. I have recognized again and again over the years that many of the behaviors of this insect, however bizarre and unlikely they seem, can be found in the behaviors of other creatures in nature. This knowledge alone has helped me survive many desperate moments since the swarm.

Fly vs. Mite Lifecycles

I know now that the fly on my ex-partner’s face was likely a sexually mature adult. Understanding that this parasitic insect is not a mite but a fly, helps me put the pieces together — pieces of all the observations of it I’ve had over the years. They seemed like two or three different insects because they looked and behaved so differently, but they were actually all the same insect just at different lifecycle stages.

Fly Lifecycle

Fly lifecycle stages do not much resemble each other (see the illustration at Featured Creatures University of Florida, click the link to “Life Cycle”):

egg
larvae
pupae
adult

Mite Lifecycle

Mite lifecycle stages do resemble each other quite a lot (see the illustration at Featured Creatures University of Florida):

egg
larvae
nymph
adult

After Being Swarmed By Insects Mineral Oil Is Finally Bringing My Nightmare To An End

Swarmed by biting insects

gailmead.medium.com

Imagine a Tiny Bug, So Tiny That…

A Shocking Glimpse of Insect Parasitism