![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MJE-L-MAYFLIES-0627-02.jpg\")
This is one example of how bad the mayflies impacted the shores of Lake Erie. Lakeview Self Service Car Wash, corner of Lake and Sheffield roads in Sheffield Lake, was not immune from the mayflies. (Journal staff – The Morning Journal)<\/p>\nOn a recent Saturday in June, Lorain residents and businesses located half a mile from Lake Erie, were covered with the biggest amount of large-winged mayflies.<\/p>\n
While the invasion of the harmless insects that don\u2019t bite is an annual event, why do stunning photos of piles of mayflies in cities like Lorain, Vermilion and Port Clinton and along the Lake Erie shore make national news, but not the other four Great Lakes?<\/p>\n
\u201cLake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes which means it warms into the 60s by early June, and with its rich sediment the lake becomes the perfect breeding ground for mayfly larvae to hatch at those ideal temperatures,\u201d said biology expert Daniel Pavuk, who teaches at BGSU\u2019s main campus in Bowling Green, and at the BGSU Firelands campus.<\/p>\n
This is one example of how bad the mayflies impacted the shores of Lake Erie. Lakeview Self Service Car Wash, corner of Lake and Sheffield roads in Sheffield Lake, was not immune from the mayflies. (Journal staff – The Morning Journal)<\/p>\n
According to the United States Geological Survey, the deepness of the other Great Lakes keeps the water too cold for mayflies which results in little to no swarms.<\/p>\n
Some shallower ends of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan sometimes produce a large hatch.<\/p>\n
Top place for largest swarms<\/p>\n
According to research by the Ohio Sea Grant, Lake Erie, the Upper Mississippi River, and the Illinois River are the top three waterways for massive amounts of mayflies.<\/p>\n
But, Lake Erie unquestionably is the mayfly leader.<\/p>\n
Among the Great Lakes, Lake Erie produces the most spectacular mayfly hatches because its shallowness, especially the western basin, provides vast expanses of warm, soft-bottom habitat ideally suited for burrowing mayflies, according to the Ohio Sea Grant.<\/p>\n
Pavuk said not only do these larger swarms of mayflies signify a healthy lake, unlike the pollution of the 1960s in Lake Erie, the insects are a great benefit to fish, and migratory song birds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalleye, perch, trout and other fish tend to thrive with these vast amounts of mayfly eggs on the Lake Erie floor, and the hatching larvae are also a feast for Lake Erie wildlife,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Avon Lake resident Brian Gerard spends a lot of time fishing Lake Erie.<\/p>\n
What has Gerard noticed?<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to an abundance of mayflies, especially some of the biggest hatches ever like in 2024, other fisherman and I have noticed bigger fish like walleye,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, when the swarms are thick as mini-clouds swirling around your head, it\u2019s hard to catch fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfly facts<\/p>\n
According to entomologists, who study insects, mayflies are among the oldest insects on earth dating back to 350 million years ago.<\/p>\n
While the mayfly larvae stage can last one to three years, they only live on land one to two days.<\/p>\n
The female mayflies that make it back to the water can lay between 2,000 and 8,000 eggs which also helps to explain why Lake Erie is the mayfly capital.<\/p>\n
Entomologists said the official name of mayflies is Ephemeroptera which is Greek for \u201cshort-lived wing\u201d or \u201cone-day wing.\u201d<\/p>\n
An adult mayfly often lives just a few hours to a couple of days, but it could have spent one to three years underwater as an egg, then as a nymph, which is a baby mayfly, before emerging.<\/p>\n
According to entomologists, that\u2019s one of the most remarkable contrasts in the insect world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a recent Saturday in June, Lorain residents and businesses located half a mile from Lake Erie, were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[99281,99283,62902,136,138,137,262,260,99284,8792,99282,23033],"class_list":["post-229180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-countrys-mayfly-capital","tag-daniel-pavuk","tag-eggs","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-great-lakes","tag-lake-erie","tag-larvae","tag-perch","tag-swallowest","tag-walleye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}