MACHIAS (AP) – A rainy spring that produced a bumper crop of flying pests should make it easy to meet the needs of an Arizona laboratory that wants to study Maine’s black flies.

The laboratory, which conducts veterinary allergy testing and treatment, is seeking 50 to 100 grams of dead and dried black flies from Maine. That amount would provide about a year’s supply for the lab and its project.

Spectrum Labs Inc. wants to extract the protein element from the insects to put into its allergy treatments for animals, said Kelly Urban, Spectrum’s general manager, in Tempe, Ariz.

It made an inquiry to the Maine Blackfly Breeders Association and the nonprofit, humor-driven charity soon came to realize the request was no joke.

The Maine Blackfly Breeders Association, which breeds humor but no blackflies, agreed to gather enough dead black flies for the company to carry out its research. In turn, the lab will make a financial donation to the group.

“Fifty grams is, like, 1.8 ounces. I don’t know how much one dead black fly weighs, so that’s a lot of dead black flies. Thousands and thousands,” said Holly Garner-Jackson of Whiting.

The group is enlisting help from anyone who has a Mosquito Magnet, starting immediately.

Mosquito Magnets stand 2 feet high in the field and weigh 30 to 35 pounds. They emit carbon dioxide to attract mosquitoes and other nuisance insects, which end up in a screened bag that can be emptied daily.

Daily catches from Mosquito Magnet bags can be dropped off in Machias at Holly Garner-Jackson’s workplace, the Woodwind Gallery.

There, Garner-Jackson and her black fly colleagues will sort the black flies from the mosquitoes by hand.