I Tried Not to Freak Out

Warning: bug-related post ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

photo taken by mjswart

I was with the dogs in the backyard a couple of nights ago and saw the weirdest flying bug ever. It had smallish wings, a weird body that was kind of bee/wasp colored and a long tail that was basically a large pine needle. By large I mean at least 3 inches. How the thing was flying, I have no idea. I freaked out and spun around to grab something to smash it (I thought that tail might be used to suck my brain out and transmit it to a waiting craft, hovering in geosynchronous orbit). Nearest tool was a shovel. Not the most graceful thing to swing at a bug that might have a deadly venom. I missed. It went away. I got the dogs inside and couldn’t get the image out of my head. I’m uncomfortable typing this right now. Bugs like that are supposed to live in the south. Or midwest. Not in the rockies.

I’ve spent a great deal of time researching what the hell the bug could have been and the best I could come up with was a mayfly. Flickr reveals some things. This one is close. Look at this sucker! See also.

I’m going to shower. And then climb in my hyperbaric chamber for a spell.

Perksofbeingme

Being from the South, the moment I saw this I know it’s a Mayfly. I can remember summers on the lake when Mayflys would storm in all of the sudden and there would be so many of them that you couldn’t see your hand in front of you. They won’t hurt you and they are great for catching to fish with. But if you don’t want to have to catch them wait 24 hours and 99% of them will be dead. Try skiing with thousands of these things flying around. We used to have a game to see who could catch the most.
Hanzandblix

I cant tell you how amused I am by this… Mayfly’s are annoying but harmless — we get them in the Northeast by the swarms as well — a few days later there is nothing left by thousands of mayfly shells. I’m with another poster above — I’ve lurked forever and THIS is what brings me out
http://blendcreations.com/weblog blend

Funny how bugs bring out the lurkers.
Have you seen the “What’s that bug?” site: http://whatsthatbug.com/

I’m not a big bug fan, but I’m okay with that site since I can at least remotely identify what it is that’s creeping me out.
http://greatdayinmaine.blogspot.com leesavee

Ick, ick, ick!!! I do my best to avoid bugs…so no chance I’d get close enough to take a good picture. Even with a telephoto lense!
http://miniaturerose.blogspot.com miniaturerose

They’re also called shadflies. My hometown, North Bay, Ontario, claims to be the shadfly capital of the world. For a few weeks each summer, the shads emerge from Lake Nipissing and cover the downtown. There’s even a picture on the wikipedia entry for these critters that shows a truck completely covered by them.

The good news is, when they are in their adult form, they have no moving mouth parts. Their sole function is to reproduce. They’re just flying sex machines.

That said, I don’t blame you for being freaked out, Jon. Shadflies are the #2 reason that I no longer reside in Northern Ontario. Blackflies are #1.
alaskabean

Thank you Every day I find more and more reasons to be so utterly happy that i live in ALASKA! I’m deathly afraid of spiders and they don’t get any bigger than your fingernail here and i certaintly have never seen anything so crazy as your mayfly. Had I been the one to encounter it and only have a shovel within reach… disaster would have enused, guaranteed!
Jaynalg

Two days ago I had a similar bug on my bedroom window and it didn’t move an inch in the whole day and a half it was there. Yikes. I too thought it was an alien trying to use its physic powers on mw (Obviously I watch way too much Doctor Who). But.…I’m glad to know I was wrong!!
Aimee Greeblemonkey

Um, ACK! Great photo though.
http://ngunderground.blogspot.com/ ngunderground

I posted a photo of a very similar bug in Virginia yesterday:

http://ngunderground.blogspot.com/2008/06/cabin-pets.html

Apparently, they have a wide habitat.

Thanks for figuring out what it was because it was baffling me.
http://faydean.typepad.com faydean

John, unless you live near water I think what you saw is a crane fly…we just got done having a very big season of them here. They are harmless and don’t bite. They will cover everything though and will swarm in your yard as you walk for about two weeks or so. Mayflies are usually ON water.
http://www.digitalcatharis.com themightyjimbo

josh (the dog) would eat it.
Ellen

Mayflies. Gugh! I first encountered them by Lake St. Clair, Michigan, where my sister lives. If it weren’t that her Michigander husband is so nice and her children so adorable, I would never darken Michigan’s door again because of those creepy floaty flappy things.
Then, about five years ago, I found them swarming around the lights in the parking lot of our local shopping mall. EEEeeeeee, they followed me to Pittsburgh!
It’s more than the waving long tail-stinger looking thing. It’s the mindless stillness of the creatures as they cling to my windshield, or to my clothes, or to my arm. It’s like they don’t even know or care that they’re about to be smeared by my windshield wiper — that’s what they’re here for. I would feel much better about sharing the world with them if I knew they were food for something noble or beautiful. Until that assurance is broadcast over the speakers in the plaza parking lot, I’m going to shudder every time I have to pick up something at the store after 9 o’clock.
Rosemary

Totally a May Fly. Sorry I didn’t see this and post it a little sooner, but the others are right in this assumption. There are crazy lots of them in Minnesota where I grew up (land of 1000+ lakes to blame). One 4th of July I was out boating with friends for fireworks. Afterward we were Going back into town and crossing the Hastings bridge going over the Mississippi River. The sky was white. I immediately thought it was snowing, nope, just a sky full of bugs so thick you couldn’t see to drive. That was the worst year for them, but every year they covered the entire downtown near the river there in Hastings. I’m talking buildings, parked cars, trees, sidewalk, streets everything. They only live 1 day, so during the night they land on anything they can and die there. A few would even show up on homes 30 miles from the river. They are a major pain to clean up also, everyone with brooms trying to scrape them off to get inside their stores. Anyway, sorry for this long comment, but it’s not often I have the opportunity to talk about these crazy bugs.
http://www.myspace.com/flutterbyegirl72 flutterbyegirl72

you totally need to check this site out. how can nobody have mentioned this yet?

anyway:

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/
http://www.myspace.com/flutterbyegirl72 flutterbyegirl72

oh and GREAT shot.
http://dbwhisperer.blogspot.com mjswart

Hey this is my photo! This could definitely account for the spike in views for that photo.

For those that are curious. It’s definitely in the genus Hexagenia (i.e. a mayfly). It was taken while camping a couple years ago on my parents trailer. I was not creeped out, but I took it as an opportunity to learn how to use the macro setting on my camera. The bug itself was only a couple centimeters long.

Michael Swart
Waterloo
that girl

I grew up in the deep south and one year my mom took in an exchange student from Germany. When summer brought in the gigantic insects he was beyond freaked out.

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I Tried Not to Freak Out