WATCH ABOVE: Massive mayfly swarm shuts down Iowa bridge, completely covering a police car at the scene. Brad Hanson reports.
“If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen…” — Exodus 10:3–6
It’s hard not to think about one of the 10 plagues after watching video recently recorded in Iowa that shows a police cruiser completely covered in bugs.
Shadflies, also known as mayflies, typically hatch in spring but recent temperatures in Sabula have been ideal and the community is surrounded by the Mississippi River, making it the perfect breeding ground.
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Local council member Teena Franzen was riding along with a police officer when the swarm shut down the Savanna Bridge and she captured the footage.
“I was thinking, ‘I’m just glad I don’t have to get out of the car,'” she told KWWL.
Watch the entire footage on YouTube:
The recording was published on YouTube one week ago and has been watched over a half million times at this writing.
As impressive as the sight of thousands – if not millions – of the flies was, a bigger hatch could still be on its way according to Mark Wagner, director of education with the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.
“The good thing about them — most people don’t see them as good — but the good thing about them is that it means that the water quality is pretty good,” Wagner explained to NBC. “If the water quality was bad, we probably wouldn’t have any mayflies.”
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