What the hell are these bugs?

September 11, 2009 7:32 AM

Name that infestation! What the hell are these zombie insects and why do they want access to my home?

Relevant facts:
I live in Chicago, and the phenomenon I am writing about is definitely seasonal. All summer long, there has been a low level of a certain kind of bug in my neighborhood (far north side, very close to Lake Michigan but not to the Chicago River or any other body or water): it looks like a cross between a mosquito and a fruit fly, but with a transparent abdomen.

In the last 3 or 4 days, things have gotten out of control. First, these bugs have grown in number by leaps and bounds. There are now probably at least 10 times as many as there were last week. Second, and most alarmingly, they seem to have changed their behavior: on each and every window of our apartment (facing East, West and South) these bugs have actually begun wiggling their way through the screen and inside.

For the first night, we ended up with hundreds of these insects swarming around our light bulbs. We have now closed up the place, and there is a thick layer of dead bugs on the sill between the screen and the window.

I do not have a photo. I can't get one to turn out correctly, because of glare from the windows and all. I should be clear that these are NOT mosquitoes, though they are somewhat similar. They don't bite and they are very stupid/bad at surviving. They just sit there and let you kill them.

posted by Ignatius J. Reilly to home & garden (18 comments total)

Do you have potted plants? They could be midges living in the soil of your plants.

I had crazy numbers of them coming from a cat palm in my house, and it took me forever to figure out that's what they were -- kept thinking they were either fruit flies or mosquitoes, in fact!
posted by kaseijin at 7:35 AM on September 11

(or...since these seem to be outside, I suppose it is worth noting that outside dirt is just as appealing to them as inside dirt...)
posted by kaseijin at 7:36 AM on September 11

I think we have the same bugs in Ontario. I recall very large piles of dead them's gathering at the streetlamp outside of our house and at/below the windowsills of our garage. I always assumed that they were some kind of a mayfly.
posted by molecicco at 7:37 AM on September 11

They do look kind of like Mayflies, actually. Not a perfect match to what I see on Google, but close.

Also, we do have potted plants, but there's no question there are coming from outside. By the tens of thousands--there is literally a greater volume of insect corpses around our windows than there is potting soil in our entire apartment. If they ARE coming from the plants, I am gonna burn down the place and leave immediately.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 7:41 AM on September 11

they sound like what we call fish flies
posted by Eicats at 7:46 AM on September 11

...but I knew "fish flies" was an incorrect local name. Here's a picture of what I am likely thinking of. It would appear those bugs are some type of midge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chironomidae
posted by Eicats at 7:50 AM on September 11

Are the "fish flies" (or any of the other possibilities) seasonal? Do they go away? Can they be shooed away in any way?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 7:51 AM on September 11

They are terribly annoying as they will just hang on screens and are drawn to lights. As far as seasonal: well the cold will kill them off. A regular insecticide sprayed around your windows could help deter them in the meantime.
posted by Eicats at 7:53 AM on September 11

Also, I'd blame a nearby water source--not your indoor plants
posted by Eicats at 7:54 AM on September 11

I think I want to blame our next-door neighbors' stupid decorative pond.

As for the invasion: they have been around all summer, but in smaller numbers. They also previously only attempted to enter our apartment through a screen door that actually does have a hole--the behavior of wiggling through the screens on the windows (which are in good shape and not damaged) is new in the last few days. Does anyone have any insight into this?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 8:04 AM on September 11

There over 2500 species of mayflies (630 in NA), all quite different... so don't go entirely on the wikipedia picture.
posted by molecicco at 8:05 AM on September 11

I think I want to blame our next-door neighbors' stupid decorative pond.

Standing water is a breeding pool for many insects. Does your neighbor keep his pond clean or is it dirty?

Earlier this summer I had a huge nat and mosquito problem. I hung a bug zapper and now I don't have a flying bug in my backyard at all.
posted by Mastercheddaar at 8:13 AM on September 11

Oh, it just sits there. It's a prime suspect for this sort of stuff, but I am just a renter in a condo building (we don't own our unit) and the guy next door owns a house. I doubt I have the slightest right/ability to ask him to be a better neighbor. Nor can I hang a bug zapper: I don't have a yard, or a porch, or anything like that--plus the windows are on opposite sides of a large apartment building.

I can't find anything on Mayflies changing their behavior or moving back and forth between swarming and not swarming. It does seem like that's what they are, but I am still clueless about what to do--aside from spraying poison all over my windows (I would rather just continue running the AC with the windows closed, even though it isn't actually hot outside).
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 8:20 AM on September 11

the behavior of wiggling through the screens on the windows (which are in good shape and not damaged) is new in the last few days. Does anyone have any insight into this?

It's getting colder outside.
posted by mikepop at 9:56 AM on September 11

Standing water in an urban environment is a health hazard (think West Nile, etc.) so you may have some luck doing an anonymous call to local health services if approaching the neighbor about installing a circulating water pump in the pond (or similar solution) isn't something you feel comfortable doing yourself.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:43 AM on September 11

Your local health/sanitation department will probably be very interested to hear about your neighbor's standing water. They also might know what kind of bugs these are.

You probably also should get more finely-meshed screens. Take some photos of the bugs inside the screens and inside the house, and talk to your landlord/property manager. I don't know if you can demand that the landlord replace the screens. You are usually supposed to have functioning windows and it appears that these screens are not functioning; if the bugs pose a health hazard (do they bite?) then you might have some recourse.
posted by thebazilist at 1:05 PM on September 11

Great question. I live in Lincoln Park and have also been cleaning up, accidentally swallowing and otherwise dealing with these bugs for the past couple weeks. While running, they'd get stuck on and die in my eyebrows or on the sweat on my forehead.

I'm on the fifth floor of an apartment building, so standing water in my immediate area isn't a problem. But tons of them still choose to die by apparently just not moving from the mesh screens on my windows.

My take is they have deep-seeded, maybe genetic, dislike for living. The only way it could be easier to kill these bugs is if they flew underneath your feet as you walk. I try to swat them away just so I don't have to clean up the smear, but swatting only works if the bug wants to avoid the swat.
posted by tenaciousd at 7:52 PM on September 15

I appreciate everyone's answers. I don't have a "force them to do it" relationship with my landlords--they are friends of ours and live abroad. I am mostly looking for information, not for ammo for a fight that isn't going to happen.

Tenacious D's comment underscores just how stupid these bugs are. I have really never seen anything like it: they just have no instinct to not get killed. It is bizarre.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 2:48 PM on September 21