CLEVELAND — They’re the tiny mosquito-like flies you just hate to see. The season where we see them on everything is here. The midges are back!
Every year when Lake Erie gets to about 60 degrees, our tiny friends emerge from the lake. The current Lake Erie temperature is about 55 degrees off the shores of Cleveland, but it is 60 off the shores of Toledo. And that is the signal for the midges to hatch.
"They look like little worms when they are underwater, they spend most of their life like that and then when the lake hits a certain temperature, they all come out together,” said Jessica Fox, Professor of Biology, at Case Western Reserve.
The larvae, or bloodworms, have been there for weeks. It's the warmer lake surface that brings them to spawn. The next step in the midge life cycle is reproduction.
That is why we see huge swarms of them; it is the midges mating so that reproduction can happen. They don’t have a lot of time as the midge lifespan is short, from just a few hours to a couple of days. The swarms can be so massive that the Power of 5 weather radar can pick them up!
That's not rain on the Power of 5...
— Phil Sakal (@psakalwx) May 21, 2023
The #midges are back and being picked up on radar! pic.twitter.com/tu5YW5UNtD
“These clouds of midges only last a little while, but you can see midges throughout the summertime and we'll see the clouds again in the fall when the lake cools down to the same temperature,” said Fox. “We'll see another round of eggs hatching again in the fall.”
Although midges are a nuisance, they play an important role in our ecosystem.
“They are food for other things,” said Fox. "So, they are nice little protein snacks when they're babies. They are fish food when they're adults. They are bird food and spider food and food for other insects."
Midges also help keep Lake Erie clean by eating algae.
“They're actually a really important part of cleaning up the lake and maintaining the lake's ecosystem because they are bottom feeders that are eating stuff in the bottom of the lake,” Fox added.
Fox said since the 1950s, the oxygen levels from pollutants in Lake Erie have been decreasing, so it’s a good sign to still see midges. If the midge population started decreasing, Fox said she would be concerned.
“There are some species that are very sensitive to oxygen, and we're seeing fewer of those midges, but there are other species that don't mind as much having the low oxygen content,” Fox said. “So, we're seeing more and more of those species of midges coming out.”
The good news for humans is that midges are harmless and want nothing to do with humans, although some Clevelanders can't help but already be annoyed they’ve returned. Raymond Lipford spent the afternoon cleaning bugs off his car at Edgewater Park.
"Terrible,” said Lipford. “They’re everywhere; you can't do anything. They’re pesty. We have to put up with them. There's nothing we can do.”
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