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Mayflies swarm a Middle Tennessee gas station

Nothing like trying to pump gas while being swarmed by thousands of mayflies, right?!

HENDERSONVILLE — What a sight: Mayflies swarmed a gas station in Hendersonville, Tenn. overnight.

Thousands of the insects covered almost every inch of the BP gas station on West Main Street Monday night.

“There’s definitely millions,” Hendersonville resident Austin Byrd said. “It was just swarming really bad. It was like a big blur.”

The Mayflies are an unusual sight to some but not all that uncommon.

“It happens every year even though they’re called Mayflies you usually see them later in the year, like June or July,” Hendersonville resident Cliff Graves said.

Agricultural Extension Agent for the University of Tennessee Davidson County, David Cook, says you usually see these insects around water where they lay their eggs, and the Mayflies likely think the station’s bright lights are the moon.

“It looks like a very large mating swarm,” Cook said.

Cook says Mayflies don’t bite or sting and the swarm won’t last long, the Mayflies usually only live for about 24 hours.

“Depending on the species, they may last one day, a couple days, maybe a week,” Cook said.

What will be left after that are the piles of dead Mayflies.

“When a single insect dies you don’t notice an odor, but when potentially millions die, he’s going to have an odor issue these for a while,” Cook said.

Cook says the eggs from the dead Mayflies will not hatch, but it won’t harm the Mayfly population.

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