Hordes of mayflies explode in Minnnnnnesota
Don’t be alarmed now, it’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.
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As an angler, I am aghast at the hatred for these noble, beautiful creatures. They are augurs of impending fish, and they embody the James Dean spirit of ‘die young and leave a beautiful corpse’. They are badass too, living their whole lives to crawl from out of the muck and under rocks just to live one flighted day, f*ck and die.
Mayflies rock. My favorite is the Ephemera Guttulata (green drake)
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[Shitloads of mayflies]
Hey, that’s somewhat heartening. Good ecological news in the US! I’ll be damned.
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And, man is that hatch on.
Yep - one thing the high numbers may represent is low levels of toxicity coming from fracking waste. It can enter groundwater systems if not well controlled. Mayflies are particularly sensitive to the salt in the waste (they live in freshwater sources and altering the salt balance can damage them easily). Keep in mind that it really is just sodium chloride they’re reacting to, so that chemistry change isn’t hazardous to humans, but they do let us know if other chemicals may also be leeching in from nearby drilling.
Seeing healthy swarms of them does mean that the water sources they’re coming from have been in a healthy balance - for chemistry, temperature, and other issues. They’re sensitive lil’ critters!
http://www.stroudcenter.org/newsletters/2013/issue6/fracking-affects-mayflies.shtm
On top of that - it’s not that it’s just one day a year where the mayflies are going crazy. Individual mayflies live for 24 hours in their flying state, but they are around for quite some time (as long as weather conditions are ideal for breeding, pretty much).
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