The bug apocalypse cometh in central Wisconsin:
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TOWN OF NEENAH - When Kristen Schulz returned home early Monday afternoon, there was a cloud in her driveway.
It wasn't a rain cloud, but something a little more sinister. A dark, buzzing mass of lake flies had invaded her Town of Neenah driveway, yard and the front of her home.
The small insects, whirling around in all directions and landing everywhere in sight, had made her property look like the set of a horror film.
"Last year they weren't nearly as bad," said Schulz, who lives along the west shore of Lake Winnebago. "We've been dealing with them for years."
She said the insects have previously inundated her home, burrowed in light fixtures, mail, clothes and even human hair.
"You have to power wash your house on a bad year to get rid of them," she said.
They also leave a stench — and a green mess. To put it mildly, Schulz said the fly is a "nuisance."
Scott Koehnke, a water management specialist with the Department of Natural Resources, said the non-biting midge has a singular purpose in its short adult life — to mate and lay eggs.
Each spring, warm water temperatures bring the flies up from Lake Winnebago's muddy surface, usually around Mother's Day weekend. That's when the fly emerges from the larval stage.
"As larvae and adults, they're the bottom of the food chain, the bottom of the food pyramid," Koehnke said. "They're plentiful."
Along Lake Winnebago, there can be trillions — yes, trillions — of flies, or "gobs and gobs" of them, as Koehnke thinks of it. It's intense enough for the flies to show up on radar.
As adults, lake flies usually live seven to 14 days. They'll hang out in shrubs or grassy areas to stay cool during the day before they mate at dusk.
But fear not: they're good for the lake and the local ecosystem. They feed the lake's sturgeon and perch and fill the bellies of hungry bats and birds.
"They are the main driving force as far as energy dynamics go on the Lake Winnebago system from a fisheries standpoint," Koehnke said. "If we don't have lake flies, we won't have lake sturgeon."
They're found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, especially in large, shallow and productive lakes. Koehnke said a female fly can lay up to 10,000 eggs.
This year, swarms of flies are being spotted along the western side of Lake Winnebago due to southeasterly winds. High Cliff State Park has also been a popular spot for lake fly sightings in the past, but it depends each year on wind direction, Koehnke said.
Looks like this might be a common occurrence (pics and video from 2014):
Interesting short video on mayflies and their mating behavior: