Are you familiar with yellow flies? They are not an insect with which you want to have a personal encounter.

I was completely ignorant of these insects when my husband assumed his appointment as minister of the newly organized Lillian United Methodist Church in the early 1980s. Lillian is located in Baldwin County on Perdido Bay. All my life I had dreamed of living near the water. I was delighted that the congregation had rented a house to serve as our parsonage across the road from the bay.

I could hardly wait until late afternoon to cross the road to the vacant lot on the bay, shed my shoes, and walk barefoot along the edge of the water. I loved tasting the salt air on my lips and watching mullets leaping and spinning before landing back in the water.

Little did I realize as I gloried in that idyllic scene that an enemy was winging its way toward me, on the prowl for a sip of human blood. Then it struck with a vicious stab, leaving a sharp, stinging pain. I retaliated with a slap, smashing a winged insect slightly larger than a green fly on my arm at the site of the pain.

I ran to the house to search for an ointment to relieve the pain. What in the world was that insect? I had never seen one before. I hoped I would never see another. A few inquiries revealed it was something you had to put up with during certain times of the year in that area. The locals called this pestiferous insect a yellow fly. You notice right away that it moves slowly, but with determination. Once it pinpoints its target, it zeroes in and buzzes around until it lights on your arm, face, neck or any exposed skin. When its bite causes that pain to shoot through your skin, your instinct is to hit it with lightning speed, just as I did. Although you have smashed the life from it, there is little consolation. Itching soon follows the pain. It continues for days and days.

Although I had suffered two or three bites, I was determined not to let the yellow fly keep me from using the lengthy clothesline in my back yard. I changed my attire from shorts and a sleeveless blouse to long pants and a long-sleeved blouse. I spread on smelly insect repellent, something I hated. My hatred for yellow flies was stronger though, so I always used a generous amount of repellent.

My husband escaped the bites at first; then he got a double dose. It became a ritual to treat our itchy red bumps at bedtime.

Those annoying insects even hovered around our door, waiting to get inside. We armed ourselves with some extra fly swatters and never gave up chasing down any that managed to find their way inside.

We joked that maybe after so many bites you became immune. Unfortunately, that never happened.