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Millions of Mayflies for a Millenium
This week the entire house is covered with mayfly skeletons and staring at the dark magnolia tree, we can see what appears to be the start of a snowstorm. More mayflies. They are also on the walls inside the house because they fly in when the door is opened. We haven’t used our car much this week, but when we do, we’ll need the wipers to clear the windshield of the dead bodies.
This is all so fascinating, I decided this must be another “unique” piece of living in Edenton, which happens to be on a large body of water. So, I should write my blog about these mighty invaders; share the knowledge, I said. So off I go on a knowledge quest, research, so I could tell the world about the mayfly.
And yes, the laugh’s on me. My readers, many from Michigan and around the Midwest around the Great Lakes, greater Cincinnati, up and down the Mississippi River, are all saying, “What’s the big deal, Deanna? So, your house is covered in bug bodies? Well, let me tell you about…”
I’ve discovered cars that get completely buried as in a blizzard, bridges that have to be closed, a town where people wear ski goggles during a hatch, and a town that uses snow removal equipment to clear the downtown street of skeletal remains of mayflies who were attracted to the lights. I’ve seen pictures of piles of mayflies in heaps (like Alabama ant hills) under a street light. I saw a picture of a Davenport, Iowa, gardener, raking them up, filling a garbage bag, putting water in the bag, letting it steep, then dumping the mayfly tea into their flower beds. I read that a swarm of mayflies showed up on radar! And there isn’t a trout in the world that doesn’t appreciate the mayfly protein. I never knew!
Our downtown store windows and buildings are covered with these insects, and they are completely under foot, but we aren’t using snow plows or closing bridges. Many of my readers could tell some amazing stories, and I can’t wait to hear them.
The mayfly is part of an ancient group of insects that includes the dragonfly and the damselfly, called palaeoptera of the order of ephemerotera, in which there are over 3,000 species worldwide. They were named for the month of the hatch, on an earlier calendar. It’s amazing that they hatch, breed and die in a matter of hours, yet have managed to live for a millennium. But, you already knew that, didn’t you.