One Massive, Disgusting Reason Illinois Should Be Thankful For Cicadas

If you think the cicada invasion in Illinois right now is bad, get ready for a scene straight out of a bug apocalypse...starring mayflies.

What Are Mayflies?

I'm willing to bet you've been bothered by one of these insects buzzing your head and swarming lights during the summer..

Just in case you don't know,  this bug is a mayfly, which is a short-lived aquatic insect that emerges from bodies of water all over North America.

The Good Thing About Mayflies

The way I see it, aside from being needed for the great Circle of Life, there's only a couple "good" things about mayflies;

1. They are completely harmless. They don't bite, sting, or carry any diseases. The biggest threat they pose is how annoying they can be.
2. They only live on land for a day or two.
3. Seeing huge numbers of mayflies emerging from a body of water means the water is healthy.

The Bad Thing About Mayflies

In my opinion, the one bad thing about mayflies outweighs the good 100 percent. The sheer volume of mayflies can be overwhelming, causing visibility problems for drivers and blanketing everything in winged bugs...and then they all die leaving behind a huge mess.

Epic Number of Mayflies Emerge From Lake Erie

I don't know about you, but I'd rather deal with cicadapocalypse before this...

Friends, those are millions, heck probably trillions, of mayflies that recently hatched on Lake Erie and descended upon the town of Port Clinton, Ohio...to die. Yes, those are dead mayflies being blown away in the above video. Yuck!

Port Clinton is located along the shoreline of Lake Erie, so they are no stranger to dealing with mayfly swarms, BUT it's never quite as bad as it was this year.

According to ABC 13 in Toledo the mayfly swarm in Port Clinton was so bad this year, some people were even using SNOWPLOWS to scoop up the dead bugs that were a couple inches thick!

Port Clinton Mayor, Mike Snider, said;.

Sunday night, that was probably the worst swarm we’ve seen in quite some time. They invaded by the trillions.

Do you still think Illinois' cicadapocalypse is so bad? I sure don't!