They're Back

I opened the door and there it was, the first fishfly of the season.

We live on a river and just down the road from Lake St. Clair. Every year about this time the fishflies swarm the shorelines of the lake and river. These little creatures are the most interesting, annoying and dangerous things around. They don't bite and only live a very short time (30 minutes to 24 hours). They cling to every available surface, such as windows, doors, cars, car windows, sides of houses, plants, walk ways and people. They fly around lights, especially large lights like street and parking pole lights, as well as commercial lights on store fronts. Then they die and fall to the ground and cover the areas under the lights. This makes the ground greasy and slippery. Many an accident has happened because of these buggers.

The city of New Baltimore (not far from us) has a fishfly festival every year with carnival rides, a parade and even crowns a Miss Fishfly. I remember so many Fourth of July fireworks with fishflies flying and landing everywhere including us. The little ones especially hate them, they are harmless but give you the biggest creepy crawly feeling when that happens. But I admit to having lots of fun picking them up by the wings and setting them squirming on the arms and legs of people who have never been around them before.

Ahhh, summer's here and so are the fishflies. The good thing is they are only around for a few weeks.