If they live on the water, what draws them onto land?
In a word: Light. Swarms of them congregate around gas stations, grocery stores, parking lots, ATMs or anywhere with lights.
Just across the border from Michigan, FirstEnergy Corp.’s Ohio Edison said this week that it is proactively turning off street lights along several roads in the Lake Erie communities of Port Clinton, Marblehead and Erie Township.
“Mayflies create a safety issue because their carcasses contain an oily substance that makes the surfaces they coat very slick, especially when it rains,” FirstEnergy Corp. external affairs consultant Nick Katsaros said in a press statement. “By turning off the streetlights near the lake over the next few months, we can help discourage thousands, even millions, of mayflies from congregating near them.”
Because they die soon after mating, groups of dead mayflies can be found in piles stacked on top of each other. They stink like dead fish and crunch when they’re stepped on.
