Story::: Mayflies are earlier than usual and most are flocking to them
::Budapest, Hungary
:: July 23, 2025
:: Gyorgy Kriska, Associate Professor at Eotvos Lorand University
“We have seen huge swarms since 2012 in the year when the water levels are very low. We think it’s because the sun illuminates the riverbed, the algae can reproduce more, and the larvae can find more food.”
::The researchers placed special blue lights to guide the Mayfly, which would be plagued by city lights
:: July 26, 2025
“What our lights are doing is that they leave them here, they don’t let them fly over the light so that they keep swarming around the light, and usually create whirlpools of insects around the light, and the light reaches the water, and they splash into the water. Maybird Mountain reaches the water where they put the eggs there. We can put the eggs there. What we can reach. They fall in the water on the next generation.
:: Mayflies are a protected species in Hungary that live less than a day after they hatch
Hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of Mayflies run wildly and breed before they perish in just a few hours. May flies live less than a day after hatching, and their abundance is closely related to the health of the Danube.
The Danube usually begins in August, but this year begins in mid-July and is expected to last for several weeks.
The Danube River (Danube Mayflies) is a protected species that has not flocked to it for about forty years due to its overly polluted rivers. He added that the Danube returned in 2012 due to the construction of wastewater treatment plants.
When Madam Mayley flocks upstream after mating, it can be confused with the lights of the city or the shadow of the bridge, causing them to crash on the river bank instead of putting eggs in the water.
To help them as much as possible, Hungarian researchers installed special blue light on both bridges.
