It’s shaping up to be a bad, black fly season this year in the Adirondacks and other parts of Upstate New York.

It’s too cold yet for them to be out in most parts in the Adirondacks, but there were some sightings reported this past week in Central New York.

“Hey, they were out last weekend on the north shore of Oneida Lake”, said Kim Adams, an extension entomologist for SUNY ESF.

“The males were out. They get in your ears, around your eyes, They can be annoying, but they don’t bite. It’s the females that will – and they’re not that far behind,” she said.

Neil Woodworth, executive director for the Adirondack Mountain Club, said if conditions last weekend up around Waneka near Cranberry Lake are any indication, there are certainly indications of buggy times to come.

“Black flies thrive on fast moving, heavily oxygenated water. We had a good snow pack this year and prolonged runoff because of the rain, which has saturated the soil,” he said. “When you have conditions like that, you have conditions for a big, black fly hatch.”

Woodworth said for years springtime was nearly unbearable in many parts of the Adirondacks because of the massive spring-time black fly hatches – at a time when you wanted tourists to come. Many resorted to wearing head nets when they went outside on some areas.

Bob Spranz uses pours out the appropriate amount of Bti solution to add to Estes Brook in the town of Keene in an effort to kill black fly larvae. Bti is a naturally occurring bacterium. Protein crystals formed by the bacteria react with enzymes in the stomach of the black fly larva, creating a toxin that kills the larva.

Over the years, though, a number of communities have been treating streams and other waterways where black fly larvae can be found with Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis), a larvaecide that can have a significant impact.

“Communities don’t mind paying for the treatments. It’s cheap insurance so the spring-time tourism season isn’t so bad,” Woodworth.

Adams noted there are around a dozen different species of black flies to be found in the East, but generally a single water source will host only three or four.

“The majority of those are minor, sporadic nuisances; three of them are major problems and one of those will produce three or more generations on favorable conditions,” she said.

The flies aren’t at their beastly, biting stage -- yet.

“It’s still cold,” Adams said. “But the more water we have, the more black flies we’ll have -- particularly when it starts getting warm and into June.”