Maine's State Bird - "The Black Fly"

Well for the people that don't live in the State of Maine our State Bird is the dreaded "Black Fly" and it comes in swarms every year. The only thing I can compare it too is a smaller version of New Jersey's Green headed fly. These little guys bite something fierce and draw blood.Anything and everything is fair game, goats, chickens rabbits, dogs and especially people -  you name it! I put out those bagged fly baits and within a week they are half full of those nasty flies. I feel so bad for the goats all ya see is running back and forth. The problem is topical sprays don't work on these little suckers!!!! On people they just love going to the roots of your hair and around your ears. It makes it worse due to the fact our weather has been rainy for at least 2 weeks now, what we need is a good stretch of hot sunny days - Here's Hoping!!  If anyone has a good idea how to deal, let me know.