By the time Martin Dubbin got home from a short walk Thursday afternoon, he was covered in a few small flying creatures. They were in his hair, his shirt, and his nose.
When he sneezed, the bugs came out.
As if Smoke and fog sweeping from Forest fires in Canada That was not enough, for in recent days New York City has been invaded by columns of flying insects which have become a nuisance and a source of fascination – what are they, where do they come from and will they go away? Another unwanted Canadian export?
At first, Dobbin, who lives in Queens, thought it might have been wind-blown ash, but soon discovered otherwise. Some were alive and flying. He quickly jumped into the shower.
The stunning spectacle was nothing short of a “natural disaster,” he quipped on Twitter, which has been filled with reports of swarms in some neighborhoods while others remain flawless.
When they got into clouds of insects, some people tried to drive them away. Others covered their mouths and noses. Others wear surgical masks before going outdoors.
Professor David Lohmann, an entomologist at the City University of New York, hasn’t seen any of the insects himself, but has inferred from photos and videos circulating on social media that they’re winged aphids — not mosquitoes, as bug aficionados have assumed.
Aphids are common throughout the United States, even in New York City. They are small, pear-shaped insects that come in a wide variety of colors, from green, red, and yellow to black, brown, and gray.
While he’s not an aphid expert—there are very few—Lohmann said the swarms are unusual, since aphids don’t usually come out in New York City until after summer. He hypothesized that warm winter temperatures may have caused the insect’s biological clock to go off.
On Friday, Le Mans went in search of aphid experts who could chime in.
“Aphids fly at all times of the growing season,” aphid specialist Natalie Hernandez wrote in an email to Lohmann. “If a colony gets too big, too dense, it will produce winged forms to scatter.”
She added that wildfires in Canada and high temperatures “could mess with her, too.”
This theory seemed plausible to Andy Jensen, another aphid researcher.
“The smoke may allow aphids to remain plentiful in the summer for longer than usual,” Jensen said. “Many aphids slow or stop reproduction in the summer heat.”
Whatever the cause, the city’s public health department said, there is nothing to worry about.
“While this may be disturbing, these insects do not represent a known public health risk,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday. “We are looking into these errors and will share any important health information.”
The swarms of locusts shouldn’t last much longer, insect experts say, to the relief of Jeremy Cohen, who was riding his bike in Brooklyn when he felt like he was being pelted with bits of hail.
Sometimes, he would ride his bike with one hand and use the other to pinch his mouth and nose.
“I knew the air quality was bad, so I just assumed debris from wildfires was flying around — which I thought would be crazy,” said Cohen, a professional photographer. Then I slowly realized there were a bunch of insects flying around.
While some saw insects as annoying, having so many insects pleased Lohman.
“The appearance of all these aphids signifies something great: New York is organic!” He said. “If pesticide use was widespread, there wouldn’t be so many aphids.”