Mayflies, often also known as Canadian Soldiers, are a dreaded, annual event when you live near the lake shore. They’re anywhere from one to three inches in length.
They don’t bite, but they do swarm at night near lights and spend their days stuck to the sides of any and all flat surfaces.
This was the utility pole in front of my house Sunday morning.
They rise up out of the lake for a period of three to four days with the sole purpose of mating and possibly being eaten by a bird. You never know how bad the infestation may be. Sometimes we get only a few; sometimes the remains have to be removed with front end loaders. Supposedly, the more you get, the cleaner the lake is.
The hospital where I work is also on the lake shore. Some years ago, we got off work at 11:30 and came out to a parking lot absolutely covered with them. They were swarming under all of the lights, and even the non-lit areas were absolutely thick with them. The ground was entirely covered. So, here comes the psych staff, trying to get to their cars. There were four or five of us. We opened our lunch boxes and put them over our heads, locked arms to help each other avoid slipping and falling into the mess of their shiny bodies, and ran screaming through the parking lot to our respective cars. I’d parked right beside a five foot tall lighted sign for the hospital. My white car was totally covered with the nasty things. I remember using my lunch box to slap at the door repeatedly, trying to get enough of them off so I could open it and get in. I was simultaneously waving my other arm around my head to keep the swarm from making a home in my hair. Driving away, it sounded like I was driving over bubble wrap. You get the same effect when you ride your bike down the street on the night after their first landings. I think I screamed for the first half mile home. Yeah, it’s pretty gross.
This year’s infestation lasted exactly one day in our neighborhood. We came out of the bar where Kevin’s gig was on Saturday night to this lovely sight.
Sunday, they were stuck all over the sides of all of the houses, garages and businesses in town.
Monday, they were gone.
You can now consider yourself educated by me. Class dismissed.
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Comments: 41
Now, imagine that these guys could bite - painfully - and stretch their stay out to a month. That's what Black Fly season in Maine is like. You can't move without swarms of little black, biting creatures descending on you, and they're everywhere.
We get sand flies that bite, but you have to be at the beach for that to happen.
We were just talking about what life would be like around here if these things could bite. I'm pretty sure I'd never leave the house.
This is crazy ! I've never seen anything like this ! I'm glad it doesn't last any longer for you guys sake ! Good shots,the telephone pole is incredible!
Actually, this year's blast wasn't that bad. I've seen years when you couldn't see wood on the entire pole!
well, that sounds gross - but at least they don't bite!
Those are just down right creepy!
I do think they look rather like aliens... and not the Canadian kind.
;-)
I think I would have slept over at work that night.
What an interesting sex lesson.
I was afraid to sleep at work. I was afraid they'd make me work the day shift the next day.
we get them too.... they're vile!
I was thinking about you when I was writing this, and wondering if you had the same nasty experience!
yup, i'd never leave the house.
Cicada's are our seasonal issues, once every 17 years.
Oh, we get those, too! I can usually remember when they're due just by evoking some memory of where I was when I last ran into them.
My last memory of them involves a particularly vile male, so I'm pretty sure we're due to get them again in 2016.
They were all over the storefronts here and there were even some on my screens.
Down at Lakewood Park, after the Dems meeting, there were just huge swarms of them, like black clouds all over.
One of the charms of being Lake Erieans.
Sometimes I think I live by Lake Eerie, instead.
Ick-these are worse than love bugs, and so huge! You are afraid of the birds? I'd be afraid of these ugly things.
But these won't peck my eyes out, flap me with their wings, touch me with their scaly little fett or poop on me.
And they go away in a couple of days.
The only time I was ever afraid of them was the one I recounted above. And that wasn't so much fear as it was overly skeevish.
Wow! That is crazy! We don't have anything like that here...thankfully.
I remember when they used to make their annual visit to the Lake I lived near in PA. It would look like snow on the roads.
Ok - the bubble popping noise would totally skeeve me out - otherwise, well, I think bugs are pretty cool.
I generally don't mind bugs too much. These, however, red line on my skeeve-o-meter.
So why aren't they called Juneflies? :-)
You know, I've often wondered the same thing!
Up already? Going to work, I guess.
No, going to take Daddy to the doc.
I probably wasn't paying attention at some point. :-)
Good luck.
Wow, I really didn't know about them. Here, we get "love bugs."
I've experienced those in Florida. I think they're even nastier than the mayflies, because they're active during the daytime hours.
Mayflies that appear in June... what are they good for again besides being icky?
They feed the birds so they don't come and try to peck my eyes out.
There was an episode of Torchwood recently where the Mayflies were aliens and GIANT. But they cured AIDS.
They sound pretty unpleasant, but (dare I say) they have a rather elegant look about them . . . for bugs, that is.
I never thought of that, but they are kind of svelte!
Ewww ... gross! Your description of the parking lot covered with Mayflies would make a great movie scene in a horror flick ... maybe "Night of the Mayflies!"
You know, when I think about that night, it really was horror flickish. You could hear their wings buzzing like crazy, even over our own frantic screams.
Wow. At first I thought - oh, they're pretty, but then...........um.........eeeww....
Hey! You need to go look at this picture! It reminds me of your current icon!
...with the sole purpose of mating and possibly being eaten by a bird.
I thought YOUR sole purpose was to be eaten by a bird? Or a dead bird? Maybe I got confused.
My sole purpose is to avoid everything alive, or recently alive, that has feathers.