The female fish fly lays an average of 4,000 eggs on the surface of the water.
If you live near a lake or river in Windsor-Essex County, chances are you’re battling fish flies. Interesting to read in The Windsor Star how people are coping with them: some are power-washing them off their buildings — even filling three wheelbarrows full! — while others are just leaving the flies sit where they land until fish fly season ends.
So far, I’ve only had a dozen or so fish flies stick to my lakefront house in Leamington, most of them on the roadside of the house, where there is a lantern on my front lawn (fish flies are attracted by lights). Inside the house, I’ve been careful to keep the lights off, even watching a bit of TV in the dark!
According to University of Windsor biology graduate student Ellen Green, we are only into Week 1 of a three-week fish fly mating season. If you see big blobs of brownish stuff on the surface of the water near shorelines, that’s probably fish fly eggs: after mating, the females head to the water to lay about 4,000 eggs each! The eggs then sink to the bottom, where they hatch. The first evolution of the newly hatched fish fly will camp out in the sediment for up to two years before beginning its journey to the surface and out of the water for the in-air mating dance.
As a newcomer to Leamington, I had been warned by locals that these shad fly-like creatures stink like dead fish when you power-wash them off the house. When I confirmed this fact with a nearby neighbour, he told me there’s a way around that: don’t power wash!
How to keep your house free of fish flies then? Here’s Don’s no-stench solution: blow them off with a leaf blower!
Since I don’t own a leaf blower (and can’t stand the gazillion-decibel racket they make), I think I will join Riverside Drive businessman Eduard Meyer and just leave the fish flies where they land. The poor things only live about three days anyway. After that, they’ll dry out under the beating sun, turn to dust and blow away … until next season!
Tags: fish flies
Thanks for that information in plain English! Looked up fish flies in Wikipedia and it was way too technical for me. I can take this now and share it with the grandchildren and others in the campground.
These little creatures are much more appealing then the maple bugs that we get some years. They are dreadful!