More and more reasons why I'm liking the Pacific Northwest.  Even the wasps are far more timid than the aggressive ones down in So. Cal.

ampfixer
Those critters are very similar to the deer flies we have in Ontario. More common around water and they take a core sample when they bite.

You got it...
 
J

Deer files, horse flies, green flies and yellow flies..... we got them all in differing numbers.  Fortunately, none of them are really very common.
 
There is a season for the yellow files. Deer and horse files are not very common and so not a big problem. Green head files are more common near the beaches in NC.
 
Instead, we have an abundance of gnats and mosquitoes.
 
100% DEET works very well. It's probably not good for you either but it does keep the bugs off of you. I'm not afraid to use the 40% DEET or the 100% DEET when I'm out working and the bugs are really bad. Out in the woods, ticks are an issue as well and DEET repels them too.

These yellow flies are a persistant bunch......they actually follow you around and I've been bitten a few times by them. Last month, we had the doors open and about 5 of them got in the house (following the little ones around, but none of them attacked).....I'm a pretty decent shot with rubber-bands, and managed to got all of them (the fly's....not the children ).
Now I see why they have these screened porches/Florida rooms.  :)) 

My daughter just bought us a portable bug zapper. It looks like a smaller tennis racquet, with a switch on the side and 3 metal screens on the racquet.  Press the switch and the screens are electrified to 2750 volts. the outside screens are not charged but the center one is. The openings are big enough for flies, mosquitoes, and other even larger insects to get legs and other body parts in between those highly charged screens..... it is such a satisfying thing to swing that around in the air at a mosquito and hear the SNAP of the discharge as a bug gets electrocuted.