Swarms of 'fish flies' in Gimli shock locals and tourists alike

Millions of flying insects have taken over Gimli, Man., with storefronts, signs and sidewalkscovered with clinging critters thatlocalscall "fishflies."

"I'venever seen such a thing," Gibby Finnbogason said.

The Gimli park patrol supervisor says fishflies appear every year in Gimli,but in all of his 41 yearshe doesn't recall seeing this many.

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Finnbogason saidhe started to see massive amounts cloud the skies last Sunday.

Two days ago, Finnbogason had to get his staff to shovel piles of the dead insects off boardwalks and sidewalks. They filled 42 garbage bags the first day, he recalled.

He added thatthere's something else that comes with the bugs.

"The bad thing about fishflies comes the smell. And if you're not familiar with it, it's pretty much open up a fish and take a whiff," he said.

Tourists Christine Robillard from Quebec and Dan Harwood from the United Kingdomsay they have never seen anything like it.

"Never! Never. In Montreal we get them on the bridge sometimes but not as many," Robillard said. "We've been taking pictures. It's quite impressive."

"Everyone seems really cool about it. But it really seems like a bit of a plague going on," Harwood added. "But I guess they're kind of cute."

'They're quite a remarkable animal,' says expert

University of Manitoba entomology professorTerry Gallowaysaysthe insects are actually called burrowing mayflies and they're fascinating creatures.

"Mayflies are quite unique in the insect world because they're one of a group of insects that moult as adults," Galloway said.

Galloway explained thatthere are two stages to adult mayflies. In the first stage, the adult is cream-coloured.

"They're not ready yet to reproduce in that stage. They actually have to shed their skin. They have to moult and then they emerge as this sort of reddish-brown form," he said.

Galloway suggests a science project of sorts collecting a few of the cream-coloured mayflies in a jar and watching the adults shed their skin in a matter of minutes, right before your eyes.

"They're quite a remarkable animal, if it wasn't for the big pile of stinking mass that you get on your property," Galloway said.

Finnbogason said fish flies arejust something that comes with being on the lake.

"If you're a resident or a tourist in this town, you get used to them. I'm not going to say you embrace them,but you get used to them."