One of the joys of living near Lake Erie (NOT!) is the emergence of midges, aka muffleheads. Each spring, the small, plumed flies emerge to swarm on the shores of Lake Erie. The annual hatching comes when the lake warms to a temperature comfortable for the flies to emerge from the pupal stage. The flies aren't dangerous. Midges do not bite and serve an important food source for fish, birds and other insects.
To say they are horribly annoying is an understatement. They are mainly in the greenery ~ shrubs, trees and plants. When you walk by, they swarm you by the thousands. If you happen to open your mouth, you are likely to ingest a few. When airborne, the swarms are often so big they show up on weather radar. They've been around for about a week, so hopefully they will be gone in a few days.
The irises are so pretty.
13 comments:
Your flowers and beautiful and I wouldn't dare take you for a walk around my yard a/k/a garden. Matter of fact the pond pump has died after 3 months just like the previous one did after about 3 months. So I've decided to have it demolished. Reached out to my son to contact his friends to see if anyone wants the fish, stones, wood or anything to help reduce the cost of dismantling that pain in the arse.
Your flowers are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.
your gardens are lovely much further ahead than ours. I planted some deep red geraniums this year in pots. I like the color and look the smell is awful to me I try to not brush the leaves when I water.
We are in the middle of black fly season and they bite! and of course the old mosquito I haave a few welts already from the damn things.
Cathy
Love that geranium. They are my favorite. In Florida it's "lovebug" season. AKA blind mosquito.
Your beautiful flowers are so ahead of mine. My daffodils are finished blooming this week but there is still something to bloom. Thanks for the walk around your garden. Spring has been earlier this year so I'm ahead with vegetable gardening but behind in the flower gardens. I do a little each day, at least, I don't have to deal with flood damage this year. I have to fight the deers. (sigh)
Have a great weekend, hugs.
Julia
Ahhhh.... beautiful flowers!
OH MY GOSH, LAUREN, HOW BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL; THANKS FOR SHARING!
Beautiful flowers ! Dogwoods are the prettiest trees !!!
What beautiful flowers you have! Love the yellow and white iris. We have fish flies that come out of the lake and river here. Much like your Lake Erie bug, ours swarm at night towards lights. The stores always turn there lights off at night because of this. Janice
We spent a week on the Isle of Skye in Scotland a few years ago. Locals kept asking us how we were coping with the midges and it wasn't until 2 days later that we found out what the midges were. They were so tiny, millions of them, they bit you, swarmed you, followed you into the car, could turn your black shirt brown in a minute by encasing you - I saw people wearing gloves, hats with netting that came down over their shoulders. We went to the Fairy Pools, a beautiful place to visit when the midges seem to come out of nowhere. People went running for their cars and you had to jump in and shut the door as quick as you could, killing whatever ones managed to get in the car with you. They say Scotland loses millions in tourist dollars because of these mini terrorists and I can say, having dealt with mosquitoes and other annoying bugs, I've never experienced anything like Scottish midges.
Muffleheads? Hmmm....thought this was going to be a post about me. Beautiful, beautiful blooms. You are WAY ahead of us growing/blooming wise. Daffies and tulips are just finishing up and lilacs just beginning. I so love lilacs. I think in heaven they will bloom always. I used to have a bed of irises, but it was so annoying to try to keep them weeded given how close to the surface their roots are....and after 2 or 3 years, even my deepest purples would turn yellow. I am not a fan of yellow. ~et~
Your garden and flowers are gorgeous!! I have that same geranium. SMILE I absolutely love the leaves and was lucky enough to find another this week, but with red flowers. When I trim this fall, definitely going to stick some of the cut branches in dirt for a new generation. I am not a fan of flying things. They are just so sneaky. We have a few mosquitos and nasty wasps. We head out after dark and spray the wasp nests, but they are persistent. Have a great week!
Beautiful beautiful photos
Post a Comment