Michigan - best time to avoid biting flies
I've been researching the UP of Michigan and along the West side of Michigan. I know summer is a short season and August is probably really busy. How is it after Labor Day? We don't mind it being coo...
Forum Discussion
wbwood,
Later in July and in August, September, and October are almost bug free in the U.P. Some to many years even May, June, and early July are virtually bug free also. So much depends of the weather patterns as a wet spring will breed a large mosquito hatching. However, mosquitos have a short life span and people use repellents and killers which prevents the hatched skeeters from getting the blood they need for hatching a new crop of skeeters etc. So even a bad outbreak is very short lived. Same goes for any biting flies as repellents, killers, and long sleeves affects future hatchings. In our 51 years of visiting the U.P. we have only had biting flies be bothersome once so it can happen but in reality it's so overblown and is quite easy to avoid or protect from a problem.
You live in North Carolina a little south of Statesville near Lake Norman flooding and are no strangers to bugs. My wife's brother lived first in South Carolina's Murrells Inlet area, then for 24 years in North Carolina having a custom home design and construction business in the High Point/Greensboro/Reidsville area. Not far from you and we'd visited him and his family many times and had much worse bugs than ever in the U.P. Also so many times in the Smokies and the rest of the S.E.
If bugs were the determining factor for a place to visit or see, NO ONE would ever go to Northern Canada, Alaska, the Tropics, or even the Smokies!
Be aware that the summer tourist and/or vacation season does't start in the U.P. until about the 1st of July. Winters are very cold in the U.P. and it take a long spring to warm up again but the falls are also long and warm as the Great Lakes are now warm. They take all summer to reach their high annual temps and all winter to cool down again. They only get surface ice mainly near the shores and don't freeze over or deep. The shipping season doesn't end until the end of January and reopens in April.
We live on the Lake Michigan shoreline about a hundred miles north of the Indiana border and our seasons are shifted 2-4 later in the calendar year compared to the Midwest areas away from the huge Great Lakes. Lake Michigan alone is 100 miles wide, 340 miles long, and 923' deep and it's the cooled off waters of the lake that keeps us from needing or wanting A/C in summer near the huge lake and it's much warmer in the winter than the rest of the Midwest in winter as the huge lake is warm and it takes many months to cool down. The constant rising heated air is blown over us in winter by the prevailing constant west to east breezes. Natural A/C from the lake all summer as the daytime high is 80F and the low at night averages 60F. The U.P. is about 5 degrees F cooler in the summer but 10-15 degrees colder in winter. Frost here is usually at Halloween or later. Tremendous amount of fruit is grown in Michigan and fruit can't handle early frosts in fall or late frosts in the spring. 70% of the nations red cherries are grown here, Vast blueberry farms with luscious sweet berries the size of cherries, apples, peaches, fantastic grapes for superb wines, etc. That's why places like Gerber Baby foods are located here along with Kelloggs breakfast etc foods and the huge Gordon Foods distributors and so many other national brands packaged or frozen foods and canneries.
The great weather and temps here where we live is why over 6 million visitors come here annually to our small local area every year and they come back again year after year and have been doing so for over a hundred years and still counting. Just a fantastic place to live and to raise a family and also have vast recreation for all right out your door without spending any money. One of the reasons the area just keeps on growing in population!
Michigan enjoys the effects of the Great Lakes so much more than the other states around them. With over 3,200 miles of Great Lakes shoreline (only Alaska has more) and there's over 11,000 natural inland lakes too.
You'll really like the U.P. as it's gorgeous and far from buggy nearly always.
Later in July and in August, September, and October are almost bug free in the U.P. Some to many years even May, June, and early July are virtually bug free also. So much depends of the weather patterns as a wet spring will breed a large mosquito hatching. However, mosquitos have a short life span and people use repellents and killers which prevents the hatched skeeters from getting the blood they need for hatching a new crop of skeeters etc. So even a bad outbreak is very short lived. Same goes for any biting flies as repellents, killers, and long sleeves affects future hatchings. In our 51 years of visiting the U.P. we have only had biting flies be bothersome once so it can happen but in reality it's so overblown and is quite easy to avoid or protect from a problem.
You live in North Carolina a little south of Statesville near Lake Norman flooding and are no strangers to bugs. My wife's brother lived first in South Carolina's Murrells Inlet area, then for 24 years in North Carolina having a custom home design and construction business in the High Point/Greensboro/Reidsville area. Not far from you and we'd visited him and his family many times and had much worse bugs than ever in the U.P. Also so many times in the Smokies and the rest of the S.E.
If bugs were the determining factor for a place to visit or see, NO ONE would ever go to Northern Canada, Alaska, the Tropics, or even the Smokies!
Be aware that the summer tourist and/or vacation season does't start in the U.P. until about the 1st of July. Winters are very cold in the U.P. and it take a long spring to warm up again but the falls are also long and warm as the Great Lakes are now warm. They take all summer to reach their high annual temps and all winter to cool down again. They only get surface ice mainly near the shores and don't freeze over or deep. The shipping season doesn't end until the end of January and reopens in April.
We live on the Lake Michigan shoreline about a hundred miles north of the Indiana border and our seasons are shifted 2-4 later in the calendar year compared to the Midwest areas away from the huge Great Lakes. Lake Michigan alone is 100 miles wide, 340 miles long, and 923' deep and it's the cooled off waters of the lake that keeps us from needing or wanting A/C in summer near the huge lake and it's much warmer in the winter than the rest of the Midwest in winter as the huge lake is warm and it takes many months to cool down. The constant rising heated air is blown over us in winter by the prevailing constant west to east breezes. Natural A/C from the lake all summer as the daytime high is 80F and the low at night averages 60F. The U.P. is about 5 degrees F cooler in the summer but 10-15 degrees colder in winter. Frost here is usually at Halloween or later. Tremendous amount of fruit is grown in Michigan and fruit can't handle early frosts in fall or late frosts in the spring. 70% of the nations red cherries are grown here, Vast blueberry farms with luscious sweet berries the size of cherries, apples, peaches, fantastic grapes for superb wines, etc. That's why places like Gerber Baby foods are located here along with Kelloggs breakfast etc foods and the huge Gordon Foods distributors and so many other national brands packaged or frozen foods and canneries.
The great weather and temps here where we live is why over 6 million visitors come here annually to our small local area every year and they come back again year after year and have been doing so for over a hundred years and still counting. Just a fantastic place to live and to raise a family and also have vast recreation for all right out your door without spending any money. One of the reasons the area just keeps on growing in population!
Michigan enjoys the effects of the Great Lakes so much more than the other states around them. With over 3,200 miles of Great Lakes shoreline (only Alaska has more) and there's over 11,000 natural inland lakes too.
You'll really like the U.P. as it's gorgeous and far from buggy nearly always.
