When did you report mayflies this year?

Mayfly Watch campaign

Greetings!

Another year of Mayfly Watch has come to an end. We hope that you will join us again next year to record your observations of mayflies along the Upper Mississippi River.

Your observations are important for researchers to understand water quality, and for managers to anticipate when to turn lights off bridges and clean up mayflies from roads to prevent accidents.

What did we learn this year?

Multiple mayfly emergences were documented in the news this summer:

June 11 in Lynxville, WI

July 11 in Dubuque, IA

July 14 in Muscatine, IA

July 25 in La Crosse, WI

Nature's Notebook observers reported light emergence (100 to 500 individuals) of Hexegenia bilineata (mayfly) on July 22nd in lock and dam pool 5 near Wabasha, MN, and a slight emergence (less than 100 individuals) of Hexegenia limbata (giant mayfly) on July 26th in pool 8 near La Crosse, WI.

The phenology calendar below shows when observers reported a "yes" observation for mayflies (colored bars) or a "no" observation (gray bars) along the Upper Mississippi River this year.

Learn more about Mayfly Watch

Why is this information important?

Large emergences of mayflies can number in the millions - enough to be picked up by weather radar!

Your observations of mayflies will help:

Researchers and natural resource managers to learn about local water quality conditions, as mayflies are indicators of good water quality over the past year
Highway maintenance officials to mitigate hazardous driving conditions that can quickly develop when mayflies accumulate on bridges

Check out this great video about the 24-hour cycle of the mayfly from Nat Geo Wild .

Thank you for your contributions to this important project!

Contact

Erin Posthumus

erin@usanpn.org

520-621-1670

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