Clouds Hill Imaging Ltd. / Getty Images New York has been infested since Wednesday, June 28 with tiny flying insects.
Clouds Hill Imaging Ltd. / Getty Images
New York has been infested since Wednesday June 28 with tiny flying insects.
INTERNATIONAL – Aphids of the Apocalypse? Three weeks after a haze of smoke suffocated New York following the monster fires in Canada, the American city is now infested with tiny flying insects. Since Wednesday, June 28, these critters have been moving in cloud-like swarms, especially in certain areas of the megalopolis, notably in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Some New Yorkers, very worried, publish many videos on social networks sharing very precise descriptions of the insects thus seen. They look like gnats, often white or green, almost invisible to the naked eye, as you can see in the video below.
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“Can someone explain what is going on in New York right now with these insects or mosquitoes? »asks a man, in the Twitter video below. “I first thought it was particles related to poor air quality, but then I realized that (…) it was flies “, he continues before adding: “It feels like an apocalypse.”
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Some have even gone so far as to compare insects to divine punishment such as the mythological “plagues of Egypt”. “New York City is overrun with insects (…) The end is near”tweeted, ironically, a journalist accompanying his message with a photo of an orange sun setting. “Floods, ash rain and swarms of insects… New York is at level 3/10 of biblical plagues right now”tweeted another New Yorker.
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After the fires that ravaged Canada, and whose smoke reached New York, many people also wondered, especially on the Reddit social network, about the fact that these insects could be pyrophilic, or “loving fire”.
“Parthenogenetic” aphids
But this hypothesis was quickly swept away by many scientists. Among them, Louis Sorkin, a researcher in invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, who told the Guardianthat judging by the photos sent to him, “these insects were not pyrophilic species”. “It’s about aphids, not gnats or flies”he said without being able to name the exact species.
“The interesting thing about aphids is that they are typically parthenogenetic, which means that females give birth to females, so their populations can explode under the right environmental conditions”explained researcher Jody Gangloff of Cornell University to ABC.
However, with the current high temperatures in the United States and increased humidity due to recent rains, the conditions are favorable for the multiplication of these insects. “It is unusual that there are so many swarms of these aphids this year,” adds Corrie Moreau, professor of entomology at Cornell University, New York Timeswho assures him: It’s due to the mild winter. »
If no researcher has yet succeeded in identifying the species that is spreading, all have sought to reassure New Yorkers as best they can, by conveying this message: these insects are not dangerous. Unless you’re a plant, of course.
See also on Le HuffPost :
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2023-07-03 15:53:24
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