Swarms of Mayflies Invade Town in Ohio in Real-Life Horror Movie Scenario

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I'll admit, I'm a little sick of seeing mayflies everywhere. Though harmless, these mosquito look-alikes swarm like nobody's business, and if it weren't for all the new bird parents in my neighborhood who love feeding these bugs to their new chicks, I'd have been up to my neck in mayflies all late spring.

In retrospect, though, I got comparatively lucky, because as many mayflies as there were in my neck of the woods, it never got this bad. On the Lake Erie coastline, mayfly swarms have gotten so bad that local residents are using landscaping tools to clear away piles of dead bugs!

This footage, according to @abc7la , comes from an Ohio town near Lake Erie that's engaged in a collective late-in-season spring cleaning task. Thousands and thousands of mayflies descended on this town and other communities in the region, covering local businesses and dying in droves, forcing locals to break out the leaf blowers to clear away their corpses.

Related: Video of Kids in Illinois 'Screaming in Horror' Over Cicadas Is All Too Real

The Short, Weird Life of a Mayfly

As noted in the report, mayflies mate in the spring and early summer, hence why they're so prodigous right now. According to the BBC's Discover Wildlife , mayfly nymphs spend 1-3 years developing at the bottom of clean rivers, streams, and lakes- hence why so many mayflies are swarming the shorelines of certain Great Lakes right about now. The Michigan Sea Grant's website notes that mayflies emerge once lake water temps hit about 68 degrees Fahrenheit so they can mate, lay eggs on the water's surface, and start the cycle anew.

Adult mayflies don't live for more than a couple days at most, but they get a lot of breeding done in that time. They're also attracted to light, and the nighttime electric lights of a lakefront community are more than enough to attract the prolific water bugs into town. Pretty soon, the swarming insects die off in droves, and boom- you're left with piles of dead insects like the ones seen here!

Compared to the recent cicada invasion in certain communities across the South and Midwest, along with public fears about the migration of the giant Joro spider along the East Coast, these mayfly swarms may seem relatively less disturbing- though still very, very gross. Unfortunately, these unlikely Ohioans might be blowing away dead mayflies for a while longer. According to the Michigan Sea Grant, mayfly season on Lake Erie typically lasts well into July and even August. Mayflies emerge in different "cohorts," and with separate species of mayflies in Lake Erie that develop at slightly different rates, there's a steady stream of bugs coming out of the lake well into the summer season. Better keep those leaf blower batteries charged!

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