Midges have once again descended on Northeast Ohio with swarms of the flying, mosquito-like insects covering cars, porches and even people.
精东影业鈥檚 Zaria Johnson spoke with Cleveland Metroparks鈥� Senior Manager of Center Operations Bethany Beshire to find out more about Northeast Ohio鈥檚 biannual nuisance.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
BESHIRE: A midge is a type of fly. So, it is in the same kind of larger group as other flies you're familiar with, but when we narrow down into the taxonomy of them, they're in their own family. And the midges that we see in Northeast Ohio are called non-biting midges. So they might resemble mosquitoes a little bit, but they're a little larger, a little more heavy bodied and they actually do not bite at all.
JOHNSON: What can you tell me about the life cycle of a midge?
BESHIRE: So, like most insects, midges start out in different stages of life. So they go from egg to larva to pupa to adult form in this whole complete metamorphosis. So as eggs, they are laid into the waters of Lake Erie. They hatch out into larva and they exist down on the bottom layers of sediments in the lake eating all the decaying organic matter that is down at the bottom. When temperatures reach around 60 degrees, which is where we're at now, that triggers this mass emergence.
JOHNSON: Yeah, it's feeling like we're in the throes of that mass emergence right now. We're already seeing tons of midges in neighborhoods closer to the lake and elsewhere, so what does that mean for the health of Lake Erie and Northeast Ohio's environment overall?
BESHIRE: Midges are kind of a mixed bag because they are important to the ecosystem. They feed lots of things: other insects, fish, birds, even mammals. They're a readily available source of protein and nutrients, so they are part of a functioning healthy ecosystem.
However, their presence doesn't indicate necessarily healthy waters. Midges are what we call a pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrate. So, they can be present in unhealthy waters too.
And water bodies that have especially a lot of nutrients in them, which is usually not a good thing for water quality; it triggers a lot of algal growth, they really do well there.
JOHNSON: Okay, so the midges in our region don't bite, but I have friends and colleagues who can't seem to escape them. My coworker even had one fly into her mouth. So, do they have any other dangers or downsides aside from being a nuisance to most Northeast Ohioans?
BESHIRE: Most people are not fans of having giant swarms of insects coating every surface outdoors or getting into their hair or in your mouth if you're cycling. It's not always pleasant to have so many around. The silver lining though is that they don't cause any harm, but when they do accumulate, as they do around buildings, they can get stuck in light fixtures, they can stain paint, they can get all over your automobile. They do present a little bit of extra cleaning and maintenance because they are there, but they aren't harmful per se.
JOHNSON: There have been stories and social media posts about swarms of midges so large they look like gray clouds in the sky. And some are even big enough to be picked up on weather radar. We usually see numbers like this with invasive species like the spotted lantern fly, but the midge isn't invasive, is it?
BESHIRE: You know, it鈥檚 funny sometimes when you see a lot of something anymore you automatically think that must not belong here. In this case midges are a perfectly natural part of living in northeast Ohio and they're kind of part of our identity here. It's a really cool thing to have these seasonal ephemeral experiences with nature. It kind of reminds you that we are just a part of a bigger picture.
