1) They don't seem to be quite as bad as years past here in central Indiana.
2) Deep woods insect spray usually works pretty well for me.
3) Yes, quit your whining that high pitched sound is attracting them :)

Hey girl,
No whining allowed. After years of grumbling that mosquitoe repellents should address other critters too, I found the large orange capped "Off" family mosquito and insect repellent is safer than some. You can't miss the orange printing on the label either. I chose the pump spray, it doesn't take much.

We attended an outdoor play with friends and out of desperation, we tried it for the biting flies. I was surprised it worked, cuz I thought it was only for mosquitoes. Later, of course, I read the label and found it was for all sorts of critters, including flies. gramma jan

I've trapped over 11,000 deer flies in the first 5 weeks of the 2012 deer fly season in Michigan using my version of the trolling deer fly trap developed by Dr. Mizell. My trap uses an umbrella, blue cups, and Tangle-Trap (purchased through Amazon). Check out my blog for how to make and use this easy effective trap. I've also posted my trapping data there. Happy trapping!

http://deerflytrapumbrella.blogspot.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: deer fly trap umbrella

Is there a reason for using blue solo cups instead of the red ones?

Crazy how well it has worked for you.

I have to try some kind of a variation of this !

I used blue cups based on info published by Dr. Russell Mizell (see my blog posting entitled "credit" for his website). It works and so I haven't messed with it .... the ol' "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" thing.

Are they worse this year?

Well I have been bitten by more in the past three weeks than the past three decades.