What are these bugs coming out at night and why do they die so fast?

May 21, 2009 11:47 PM

What are these bugs coming out at night and why do they die so fast?

At night usually past 12PM, these bugs about 3-5 times the size of fruit flies come out of no where and start flying insanely, mostly gravitated towards my lamp. After a couple of minutes of this, I'll hear a plop and look at my desk to see them upside down as if they're struggling to survive or something, and then they die.

What are these bugs, why do I have them, and why are they dying so fast?

posted by rintako to Pets & Animals (8 answers total)

IANYI[nsectologist]. However, a tentative analysis tells me that they burn themselves on your lamp. The majority of flying insects gravitate towards lamps. The reflex seems to be 'where there's light, there's an escape'. Geez, even I would fly into a lamp if I was made buzzing about after 12PM.
I suppose we need a picture and a location to go any further on their usual daily rhythm and behavior pattern, though.
posted by Namlit at 11:57 PM on May 21, 2009

Escape doesn't enter into it. Nocturnal insects like moths have evolved to navigate by the moon, which is so far away that they can fly all night in one direction with the moon, say, on their right. If they try that with light bulbs, they will sprial in and hit them. They die because they blind themselves, burn themselves, or hit themselves on your lamp.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:11 AM on May 22, 2009

Escape doesn't enter into it. Nocturnal insects like moths have evolved to navigate by the moon
Thanks. I was wondering whether I was right here. The effect is the same, anyway, is what I meant.
posted by Namlit at 12:15 AM on May 22, 2009

June bugs? The activity you describe is pretty accurate for them, but they're a hell of a lot bigger than 3-5x a fruitfly.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:28 AM on May 22, 2009

I think the bugs the OP are referring to look like delicate black mosquitoes with feathery antennae. Some kind of fly, I guess- a thin-bodied, soft fly, with a narrow, straight body- not a big jucy bean-shaped body like most types of fly. Definitely NOT a moth (despite the fluffy antennae) or junebug (not crispy). My apartment is full of them, too, starting every April.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 7:22 AM on May 22, 2009

Best answer: If pseudostrabismus is right, they're non-biting midges.
posted by borkingchikapa at 10:13 PM on May 22, 2009

Borkingchikapa, that's EXACTLY what mine are- thanks!
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:40 AM on May 23, 2009

Response by poster: those are what they look like, thanks, why are they ending up in my house and coming out of nowhere?
posted by rintako at 10:00 PM on June 14, 2009