Our first crop of lakeflies has arrived,,,

[mcctatas]

and while the swarms of bumbling bugs are annoying, the three inch high piles of dead lakeflies that we have to shovel off of the sidewalk are nasty :puke:

[Inchworm]

1. Ewwwww

Dang! Guard your firstborn! I think that's next :P

:scared:

[Rising Phoenix]

2. gross.... I hate bugs

we get a lot of mosquitos due to the nearby marshes. The town sprays for them, but it doesn't really help, outside is pretty unbearable after 4 pm most of spring and summer

[mcctatas]

3. Thankfully, these don't bite...

and they are actually an integral part of our ecosystem, the sturgeon babies eat the larva, when we have a big crop of lakeflies, ice fishing is good the next winter.

[Rising Phoenix]

4. well thats a plus....still

ewwwwwww!

[vard28]

14. That's real nifty

but I bet they get in your HAIR! If that happened to me, I'd end up screaming like a girl and running for cover. UGH!

[HopeHoops]

5. Man, you must have REALLY pissed off GOD!

:wow:

[Inchworm]

6. .

:spray:

:rofl:

[TZ]

7. yikes..even our 17 year cicada swarms don't seem that bad...

:scared:

[mcctatas]

8. I think it is kinda funny that they arrived just in time to welcome

PaddyBlueEyes when he visits on Thursday! I should take him for a bike ride so he can experience the joys of my childhood here (lakeflies in your teeth, up your nose and in your eyeballs)

[TZ]

10. So ....

A plague of insects arrives just before PaddyBlueEyes? Is his real name Ramses? :rofl:

[mcctatas]

13. Ramses you say?

:P

[PaddyBlueEyes]

22. Damn Baby

I know you were trying to be complimentary..but couldnt you have used a magnum box? :P

[mcctatas]

23. Ooops....

sorry love! :P

[BeachBaby]

9. Gross! WTF!

I've never seen anything like that before. That would put me in my grave, for sure. :scared:

[mcctatas]

12. they come twice a year every year...

'Don’t be alarmed if you hear a humming sound coming from above near Lake Winnebago.

It’s not from an electrical box, but rather the annual spring invasion of lake flies, said Scott Koehnke, water management specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

“Their wing beats can have a humming sound when several thousand of them are flying together,” Koehnke said.

Lake flies, which look like big mosquitoes, have been spotted in small numbers, but that could change soon when much larger numbers of the insects are expected.

Koehnke said the DNR has sampled four areas on Lake Winnebago and have come across a sizeable amount of lake flies in the larval stage.

“I would venture a guess that we’ll have a fairly large hatch this spring,” Koehnke said, adding that sometime around Mother’s Day is when lake flies usually start their spring invasion of Oshkosh.

Once they’ve arrived lake flies should stick around for about 10 days to two weeks before dying off.

Officials from the DNR said there are at least millions of lakes flies emerging from Lake Winnebago and potentially into the trillions."

http://www.fdlreporter.com/article/20090509/FON0101/305090112&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

[BeachBaby]

21. All of this confirms that you need to move out to the Northeast.

We don't have crazy shit like that. Good god - "several thousand"?

[surrealAmerican]

11. What are they?

I was just noticing our gnats are back in Chicago. They form into "clouds" that I try to walk around (but usually fail).

[lutefisk]

15. To make matters worse, the spiders feed on them and their population surges

Spiders everywhere... can't even roll the car windows down.

[dembotoz]

16. would you rather have more f--king snow?????

you have to shovel that shit too.

At least the furnace is not on 24/7

[mcctatas]

17. I like snow!

and no one has invented a 'lake fly blower" yet :P

[Pierre.Suave]

18. leaf blowers have not made it over there yet?

:P

[TZ]

19. Ummm-- I'm not going to be attacked by swarms of flies

when I arrive tomorrow am I? Land of 10,000 lakes...lakeflies...:scared:

[Pierre.Suave]

20. None here.

Just a beautiful sunny day with a nice, light breeze blowing.

I may go sailing if I can get the boat to the lake.