Radar Picks Up Mayfly Swarms Off To Our East Near LaCrosse & The Mississippi

It may be nearly the end of July, but the 'MAY' flies are swarming just to our east. This radar image is from Sunday night and shows the massive amount of mayflies as they emerged from the Mississippi river. This phenomenon is not new, as it happens just about every year, still, think about how amazing it is that those bugs are so thick and the infestation so massive it can be detected on a radar screen.

I was just in LaCrosse a few weeks ago and I know that I came home with quite a few bug souvenirs on the grill of my car. That certainly is fun to clean off, NOT! They may be lucky enough to live beside the incredible Mississippi over there, but this is one of those things we are lucky to not to have to deal with here. Several photos have been posted on Facebook and Twitter depicting bug swarms so think they literally coat gas pumps, buildings and fill the sky!  When I was in the area, the bugs were so thick that you swat them off of you, only to find that creepy crawly feeling later, as if they were still there. I even found that some of them followed us into our hotel room.  ICK!  The good news is that this is a very short-lived occurrence, and the term "mayfly" is derived from the greek word, 'ephemeros' meaning "short-lived."