(KNSI) – This week has seen perfect weather to be outside and enjoying yourself, as long as insects don’t make you bug out.
The pests have been prevalent in the twilight hours when the sun isn’t at full intensity. KNSI News reached out to St. Cloud State University Biological Sciences Professor Bill Cook about what causes the swarms and how long we can expect them to last.
Cook says many different species of insects have mating swarms at various times throughout the year. It tends to depend on the length of the life cycle. Large lakes will see mayflies towards the end of the month. Black flies, which are known to bite aggressively, are typically in June throughout the upper Midwest. Ants, bees, and termites will all see a surge in activity in late summer and early fall.
In Minnesota in mid-May, the prevalence of bugs floating through the air is likely what are known as midges or gnats. Those are catch-all terms for small, mostly non-biting, flies. Cook says they can refer to as many as 10,000 separate species that can only be identified after careful examination by an expert.
Cook notes that midge swarms won’t last much more than a week. He says the bugs live for a limited time, about a month at the most. Gnats don’t eat because they aren’t alive long enough to need to do so. As adults, they mate, lay eggs, and then die.
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