In 2014, lights were added to the Veterans Memorial Bridge bridge in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. But with the upgrade came an unforeseen complication that now occurs every year: massive piles of decaying mayflies that can obscure visibility and kick up a stench. In a video posted today on Instagram, @tomjm.poet describes the mayfly heap today as at least three feet deep "at its deepest point," and says, "I can't even walk through this pile."
From Yahoo!:
This video, taken by Tom Johnson-Medland, shows the huge mound of mayflies that hatched overnight and died on the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which spans the Susquehanna River and connects Columbia to the town of Wrightsville. …
These tiny aquatic insects, which often emerge from the riverbanks to swarm, mate, and die, tend to live less than two days.
The bugs come out in full force during the spring and summer months in the area, with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation typically shutting the lights off on the Veterans Memorial Bridge from May through late June to reduce the volume of mayfly hatches, according to local media.
Via Storyful
