All that beauty comes with a cost.

And the bugs in the UP bite. The mosquitos are bad enough that some Yoopers call them the official bird of the UP.

That should give you an idea of how big they are.

But the bugs that – forgive me – bug me the most are biting black and stable flies.

And that's what we're concentrating this post about.

Bugs in the UP can be terrible at times!

Technically, we're talking about two kinds of fly species.

Black flies are small, dark flies with a humped back that can give a painful bite. Unlike a mosquito (which sucks up blood through a proboscis), black flies slash the skin and lap up the pooled blood.

Stable flies have dark stripes on their back and a checkerboard-like pattern on the top of their abdomen. A distinguishing feature of the stable fly, visible to the naked eye, is the distinct stiletto-like proboscis of the stable fly which extends forward beyond the head. This sharply pointed beak is used to pierce the skin and draw blood.