WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Pennsylvania black flies or gnats have been more annoying than usual this year. The Department of Environmental Protection has taken notice and is taking action to fight the problem along the Susquehanna River.
Some young men were trying to have fun at Kirby Park with a game of football on Wednesday, but an uninvited guest keeps getting in the way.
"It's kind of frustrating because, I mean, there's obviously 10 of us out here and you know, and all of us are getting gnats in our eyes and our mouth, and we keep having to stop because someone's getting it in their eyes or something," Liam Martinchek said.
The Department of Environmental Protection hopes to help.
"We're going to spray the Susquehanna River all the way down from Bradford County into Columbia County through Luzerne County for black flies," said DEP official Colleen Connolly.
Over the past week alone, the DEP has received more than 1,000 complaints from people in northeastern Pennsylvania about black flies.
"The DEP has noticed an increase in the black fly population this summer, so we've targeted these four counties, this part of the Susquehanna River, for spraying," Connolly said.
The DEP is spraying an organic compound that contains a type of bacteria that goes after black flies but does not harm humans or wildlife along the river.
"If we can stop them in the areas where they populate, that stops them or helps reduce their ability to fly out into the community and annoy people. We want to get them right where they populated, which is along the Susquehanna River."
The DEP will continue to monitor the situation, and it has also scheduled another spraying for Thursday along the Delaware River that will take place from Bucks County up to the Northampton/Monroe County line.