I Tried Not to Freak Out
June 26th, 2008Warning: 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. o
Tags: bug, mayfly, still have the creepy-crawlies just thinking about it
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June 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
You’re right - it’s most definitely a mayfly, and yes they inhabit the south. Growing up on Lake Murray in Columbia, SC, I’d have to endure the 11th plague every summer - swarms of these stupid things by the thousands. Be glad it was just one. Icky.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
That’s totally a “fish fly”, aka a may fly. We call ‘em fish flies in Minnestoa because in June they all hatch and then die and the fish eat the dead ones on the lake. If you think that’s scary, see 1000s of dead fish fly carcasses floating on the lake and all you want to do is jump in.
And they are so harmless, even little kids can catch them. Hence this shot.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Jon,
That is a hexigenia mayfly I think. If you were a trout fisherman you would now be speeding to your nearest trout stream to participate in a fishing event fly fishers wait years for. Have no fear. Most mayflies emerge from the water sans mouths. They can’t bite you or sting you but if you were another mayfly they could show you a real good time! They only leave their aquatic world for a few days to have sex and then die. Truly a beautiful and harmless insect. Trout think of them as a double whopper with cheese.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
My god, you are a bigger man than I. Both in the sense that you had the wherewithal to photograph this thing, whereas I would have just started crying and run away. And in the sense that I’m a woman.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Yikes! That thing better not fly down to my house. I don’t care what anyone says about that thing being harmless just LOOK at it - it’s terrifying.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
We call them fish flies in Michigan. They only live 24 hours, enough time to hatch, breed, and die. They don’t have mouths, so they don’t eat or bite. And if you drive over them on the road, their crushed bodies smell like fish and they can sometimes cause slippery spots on the pavement.
I HATE them! Thankfully, this years’ hatchings weren’t so bad.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
If you are accurate about the size, it’s definitely one of the Hexigenias - probably Hexagenia Limbata. Kinda rare for Utah!
June 26th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Yep, mayflies… My undergrad town in Western NY (right on Lake Erie) has an infestation every few years and they coat the library. Not as bad as this, though: (danger: oogie alert) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfJDbwnfPck
June 26th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I see these all the time in NH - they look like enormous mosquitos!! Scary!
June 26th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Thank God I’ve never seen one of these in Georgia. I don’t care how harmless they are….far as i am concerned, just seeing one could cause a heart attack for me.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
It’s a stonefly.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
In Ky we call them Galanippers(spelling?)
my SIL swears they are GIANT mosquitos!!
and is terrified of them…
June 26th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
The one you said looks close appears to be an Ichneumon Wasp. From what I found, they are harmless to humans and trees, and in fact help to keep many insect pests under control because their larvae feed on and destroy many insects injurious to humans and plants.
Doesn’t mean they don’t look freaky, though.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
One at a time, they’re just a little bit freaky. En masse, they’re gross.
The annual fair in my Michigan hometown is the “Bay-Rama Fishfly Festival.”
http://www.bay-rama.com/
I’m disappointed that it’s Miss Bay-Rama that is crowned, and not Miss Fishfly.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I’ve lurked here for quite a while. Funny that *this* is the post that brings me out…
A friend of mine (who is terrified of flying insects in general) in Pittsburgh had the same sort of bug land dead on his porch a while ago. He had no idea what it was, either.
The photo he took of his can be found at http://blurbomat.com/archives/2008/06/26/i-tried-not-to-freak-out/
Maura, it looks like you’ve solved at least my friend’s conundrum.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
As many have noted, ’tis a mayfly. Their short life inspired the Mayfly project - http://meish.org/projects/mayfly/ - which I assume will be around again in 2008.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Definitely a fish fly. Fish fly season is about a week long. They live for 24 hours and are harmless. They cover buildings and sidewalks by the thousands and they stink like fish. Shop owners have to shovel them off of the walks like snow. Teenagers spin donuts in fish fly covered parking lots.
We even have a festival for the awful things.
http://www.bay-rama.com
June 26th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Every year around this time tons of those are everywhere in Montreal, Quebec. We call them shadflies and they are really harmless. You can pick them up by the wings and there bodies wiggle around and then you let them go and they flitter off. They can cover the street and walls like this.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Gorgeous photo, but I’m a bug and grub kinda guy.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Oh crud, I just realized I linked to your very own post there! Sheeoot. That would be because I just linked him to this entry.
What my friend saw is over here: http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/bumpedcorners/WTFBug/DSCN0127.jpg
Sorry about that.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Jon, you are one gigantic pansy. Man-up and kill that thing for cryin’ out loud.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:12 am
that is some crazy engineering right there.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:31 am
These mayflies are harmless and actually quite beautiful. I am glad you didnt kill it just because you were afraid of it…
June 27th, 2008 at 6:38 am
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2008/06/19/they-re-back-cape-cod-cicada-invasion-2008?blog=132
On the topic of BUGS
Last weekend while leaviing Cape Cod; and trying to get over the bridge, all the cars were COVERED with these! It was bizarre!
June 27th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Yeah, it’s freaky and a little bit made-for-movie-ish but really, look at it….very interesting.
Now after saying that, I would have freaked out and looked like a maniac trying to kill the damn thing but also run from it.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:03 am
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.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:29 am
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
June 27th, 2008 at 8:22 am
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.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am
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!
June 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
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.
June 27th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
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!
June 27th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
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!!
June 27th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Um, ACK! Great photo though.
June 28th, 2008 at 7:19 am
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.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
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.
June 28th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
josh (the dog) would eat it.
June 28th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
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.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
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.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
you totally need to check this site out. how can nobody have mentioned this yet?
anyway:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/
June 30th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
oh and GREAT shot.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:54 am
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
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 am
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.