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    The Lookout

    Behold the Bugnado!

    Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and now . . .  bugnadoes! In the great state of Iowa, a swirling vortex of insects was spotted (and videotaped) above a cornfield. This is not a drill, people.

    A buzzy article from LiveScience helps to explain the phenomenon, which, thankfully, isn't all that common. Professional storm chaser and photographer Mike Hollingshead caught the bugnado on video on July 4. He uploaded the clip to the Web, and, not surprisingly, the video has since gone viral. What was it like to see in person? Hollinghshead told Life's Little Mysteries that the air "looked like it was smoking."

    So, what's going on, in layman's terms? The LiveScience piece explains that the bugs in this clip are near the end of their lives and the flight is actually a mating ritual. Joe Kieper, entomologist and executive director of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, spoke with LiveScience.

    "This is a mating flight," Kieper said. "The males are trying to impress the females, and the females select a mate." Different pairs hook up in the vortex, which is kind of a dance for bugs looking to score. After the male and female mate, the male dies, and the female lays eggs. She too then dies.

    What's amazing is the level of synchronization among the insects. Like a large flock of seagulls, the insects seem to be moving as one. According to an article from WJLA.com, "a bugnado is spawned when heavy rain or floods and optimal temperatures cause insects to hatch en masse, conjuring dense colonies of buglife that ascend into sky-darkening breeding frenzies."

    If you're worried about this as a trend, don't. They don't appear often and they aren't dangerous like a real tornado, but they can lead to big-time bug bites and a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.

     

    891 comments

    • Taxed2death  •  9 mths ago
      A can of Rust check will drop them right out of the air...screw raid
    • Robert  •  9 mths ago
      good grief its a good thing it doesnt happen on van . island id be eaten alive
    • woods chick  •  9 mths ago
      Where's the Raid when you need it?
    • SS  •  9 mths ago
      I was walking through a field one day (last year). I started to get bit by misquitos. I had been fending a bunch off, and not getting too many bites. But then I got swarmed.

      It was creepy and astonishing that all these misquitos started to attack my in unison at about exatctly the same time and had a strategy. They also seemed to understand I only had two arms and hands, so while one hand was swatting or scrapping/rubbing off a swarm of them on one side of my body: The other side was unprotected, and they attacked that. Then in reverse when I tried to deal with the new assult: the other swarm went after the now unprotected other side.

      It was painful and I could feel it being done to my heart beat and blood flow.
      • Veeman94 9 mths ago
        I had this happen also .I was told by an entomologist that the mosquitos track blood meals by honing in on a person or animals CO2 from what we exhale.If you are around a swarm it takes a few moments for them all to get to where the breath is coming from
    • CUTHBERTSON  •  9 mths ago
      People seem to be amazed at "flocks" of birds, and "swarms" of bugs being synchronized in flight, and often appearing as "waves" or " clusters" undulating over a food source, or "flocking" in to trees to overnight. I like to watch at certain times in shopping centres at night the moths cluster around the parking lot lights, as moths are drawn to the light. Then the fun beging as flocks of seagulls move in, and swoop, glide, and fly through these moth clusters with their beaks open, much like whales storming through a giant concentration of kryl.Great "moth buffet" for the seagulls. Watching flamingos take off in unison, and on nature shows, there are probably thousands of birds flocking and not touching each other as they fly in huge ubdulating flocks.
      If the birds could find these "Bugnadoes" they would circle and feed like seagulls in the parking lot.
      • Veeman94 9 mths ago
        I use to watch the same thing with bats darting in and out around streetlights on summer nights.
    • venomousbird  •  9 mths ago
      I've seen similar things too growing up in the country, but regardless of how common it is, this is still impressive footage and thus newsworthy in my opinion.
    • L  •  9 mths ago
      Where is my can of RAID
    • Cassandra  •  9 mths ago
      I guess no one has ever heard of midges, which is what these tiny bugs are.
      They always appear in the summer and are are generally found near lakes and
      rivers. The picture in this article is simply a large swarm of them. Maybe people are
      spending to much time on their computers and have never been anywhere
      near the country. I can't believe that this is considered news.
      • '49 Fairlane 9 mths ago
        Cass,...................makes you wonder of these pagers.you are likely very correct in your conclusion,i have experience as well.midges may-flies ect.even june bugs.
    • cult  •  9 mths ago
      I saw this in Toronto
    • Jethro  •  9 mths ago
      Need a buzzooka for this
      • miso 9 mths ago
        LOL! Good one :P
    • Guess  •  9 mths ago
      Frankie, I've never seen that in Quebec but I guess those bugs can form anywhere. Bug fest city. Awesome to watch a swarm of bugs and they do look like tornadoes toughing down. Creepy!
    • A Yahoo! User  •  9 mths ago
      This is what jews look like from space
      • f 9 mths ago
        huh?
      • Guess 9 mths ago
        Dandruff not funny your're just evil!
      • '49 Fairlane 9 mths ago
        evil????????????????????????????? lol
    • Frankie  •  9 mths ago
      First would like to know what the explosion was from. The video was neat to watch but we see this too in Quebec. What is more amazing is watching birds do this, especially the Starlings when there is 100 or more.
    • ChristopherR  •  9 mths ago
      Yup ! I'd also like to know what kind of criters those are ?
    • Barry Coldwell  •  9 mths ago
      amazing
    • Doug  •  9 mths ago
      video no longer available...
    • toocat  •  9 mths ago
      Bring back ddt, and fast.
      It was never as harmful as the results of banning it!!!!
      Malaria killing millions of human beings and countless other species.
      Short term pain for long term gain. And not as much pain as the eco-terrorist will
      have you believe.
      Have a look at the vanishing forests in British Columbia.
      A little ddt could have stopped the pine beetle in it's tracks!!!
      Now thousands of square miles of dead or dieing trees.
    • David  •  9 mths ago
      Conspiracy!
    • Krusty The-clown  •  9 mths ago
      insect orgy
    • Johnny  •  9 mths ago
      Now I know what to do with fireworks durning the day. Tell me that wouldn't be fun.
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