Thousands of flying insects take over city as huge swarm causes chaos

04 September 2023 , 12:06

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A massive swarm of winged insects appear in Yiyang, a city located in southern China's Hunan Province. (Image: AsiaWire)

A massive swarm of winged insects have been pictured taking over the streets of a city in China.

Imagery captured by stunned residents show thousands of mayflies flying over roads in the middle of Yiyang, a city located in southern China's Hunan Province. Phone footage shared on Douyin - China's version of TikTok- shows thousands of the insects taking over the streets, slowing down vehicles and pedestrians attempting to pass through.

With the footage capturing the jaw-dropping spectacle at night, the insects can be seen swarming around lit street lamps. One moped rider is surrounded by the winged creatures as they attempt to drive away. Some people have speculated online that the event could be a 'harbinger' of something much worse.

One Douyin user titled 'people on the go' commented: "This is the harbinger of a typhoon." Another user titled 'yang fan hang' wrote: "Strange events are happening one after another, could it be a sign?" While user 'Don' said: "I thought it was hale."

A moped rider tries to navigate their way through the insects (AsiaWire)

The jaw-dropping spectacle happened at night (AsiaWire)

Locals said although the strange event is typically seen every autumn, this year's number of mayflies came as a bit of a shock to them as well. Similar to a dragonfly, the mayfly can normally be found near rivers and lakes, which is why they swarmed this one particular area in China. The Zi River, which flows into the Yangtze River via Lake Dongting, flows right through Yiyang.

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According to The Wildlife Trusts, mayflies are common around freshwater wetlands, from fast-flowing rivers to still lakes, where the larvae spend their lives underwater, feeding on algae and plants. When the weather warms up, the adults hatch out - sometimes simultaneously and in huge numbers. They have very short life spans and normally only survive for one of two days. According to the locals, this unique phenomenon seen in Yiyang lasts for approximately half a month.

Sam Truelove