Multiple children left with bloodied bites Sunday afternoon at Mission Creek Park – Kelowna

Photo: Contributed

Bites from black flies at Mission Creek Park

A father from Kelowna says multiple children playing at a park Sunday afternoon were attacked by a large number of black flies.

Janidu Rajapakse says he was at Mission Creek Park with a group of children from his church when multiple black flies began to bite the backs of the kids’ necks.

“All the kids in our group had these marks on their necks and they were bleeding. Then I saw all the other kids in the playground also had it and the parents were wiping down the blood running down their necks,” he said.

Rajapakse says he has lived in Kelowna for 13 years and has never seen the black flies so bad.

“We had a few nurses who were parents there. They like to bite on the neck right in the back. It took a while before the blood stopped,” he added.

Black flies, which are small and active during the day, typically appear from late spring (April) to early summer (July), especially near creeks and rivers. The female black flies are responsible for the biting, as they require blood to develop their eggs. These flies often land and crawl for some time before biting areas with thin skin.

To treat mild black fly bites, experts recommend washing the affected area with soap and water and applying ice to reduce swelling and discomfort.