Bill Pierce finds himself all over the country promoting the Maine outdoors for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

He gets some pretty unusual questions in his travels. We asked him for a handful of the most frequent Maine myths or misconceptions.

Black flies

He hears: “When are the black flies the worst?”

“I’ll say, ‘You mean the Maine state bird?'” Pierce laughed. He tells people that even with all the fishing and outdoor activities he does, he only wears bug spray maybe three times a year.

“Suddenly that blows my credibility: The myth is that the black flies can take you away, they’re like piranha.”

Grueling weather

He hears: “When does it get warm?”

“I joke with them more and say we have nine months of winter and three months of rough sledding.”

Too abundant wildlife

He hears: “What about bears?”

Don’t worry, he tells people. Even deep in the woods, they may see you, but chances are you won’t see them.

Quick sight-seeing trip

He hears: “We’re planning to visit Bar Harbor, then Sugarloaf, then zip down to L.L.Bean…”

“You got a real auto-tour planned here,” he’ll tease. “There is a huge misconception that Maine is the size of Massachusetts.”

Pierce said it blows people away when he tells them all the other New England states can fit inside Maine. (He actually had someone in Atlanta ask if Maine was part of the Canadian Maritimes. Really.)

Missing moose

He hears: “I’m on my third trip to Maine and I still haven’t seen a moose.”

Pierce said he’ll point on a map to prime moose spots like Jackman and Greenville and ask, “Where’s your camp?”

Wells, they answer. Or Ogunquit. People complaining they’ve haven’t seen moose have never been north of Portland.

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