Mayfly

[BCF]

I have never seen such huge numbers of Mayfly in our woods, getting in your eyes, in your ears, up my conk. That on top of woodants crawling up my legs nipping all the way up, mossie's biting wherever there is bare flesh, think i will have to get Ray Mears in to teach me how to survive in deepest Kents hostile woodlands.

[armchairarborist]

gotta be attractive to something though.. right?

[Joy Yeomans]

hubby was carting some timber back across the local reservoir and on top of the bund where walkers were,there were huge swarms of black insects with people really batting them away and dogs running everywhere out from the swarms, could these have been mayfly? this happened last week, around good friday

[Charlieh]

hubby was carting some timber back across the local reservoir and on top of the bund where walkers were,there were huge swarms of black insects with people really batting them away and dogs running everywhere out from the swarms, could these have been mayfly? this happened last week, around good friday

 

if they had black dangly back legs there were hawthorn flys pretty common at this time of year, completely harmless but seem to freak people out for some reason

 

 

I have never seen such huge numbers of Mayfly in our woods, getting in your eyes, in your ears, up my conk. That on top of woodants crawling up my legs nipping all the way up, mossie's biting wherever there is bare flesh, think i will have to get Ray Mears in to teach me how to survive in deepest Kents hostile woodlands.

 

 

if you have mayflies you must have some flowing water or a clean pond in your woodland as mayflies are aquatic inverts, and are great for us fly-fishers as its one of the main food sources for trout

 

also most of the midges about at this time of the year are chironmids, so are non-biting, see this link to see how many of these you have swatted as mosquitos Chironomidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia their larvae are the little small wormy things swimming round that you get in pockets of any water such as water troughs and in barrels or buckets that get left with water in them for a few months over summer

Edited May 2, 2011 by Charlieh

[BCF]

if they had black dangly back legs there were hawthorn flys pretty common at this time of year, completely harmless but seem to freak people out for some reason

 

 

 

 

 

if you have mayflies you must have some flowing water or a clean pond in your woodland as mayflies are aquatic inverts, and are great for us fly-fishers as its one of the main food sources for trout

 

also most of the midges about at this time of the year are chironmids, so are non-biting, see this link to see how many of these you have swatted as mosquitos Chironomidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia their larvae are the little small wormy things swimming round that you get in pockets of any water such as water troughs and in barrels or buckets that get left with water in them for a few months over summer

 

Yes their is a 3.5 acre lake next to the woods where i am working, they don't seem to like the shady parts of the woods so their is some respite from them.

[tommer9]

The presence of mayfly larvae in water is one of the indicators that the water is extremely clean:thumbup1:

[slack ma girdle]

If it is black and hairy, and flying slowly at this time of years, it will be a St Marks fly (Bilbo marci), larvae live in soil and rotting vegetation

[penfold]

are they still around? Mayflies tend to live in their adult form for just one day with just one purpose- reproduce and then snuff it.