OMG its Massive! May bug!

[jackie j]

I dont know what bugs they were, but when I was at my boyfriends parents helping to lay a new front path there were loads of flying black insects. They looked like rather big mozzies but were very clumsy when flying. Spent most of their time crawling on the floor. Any ideas on what they may have been?

Sounds a bit like flying ants but didnt think it was warm enough for them yet.

[Raindancer411]

Hi Jackie, no they were a LOT bigger lol... they looks like over grown mozzies yuck...

[Two_Sheds]

Raindancer, they are like a mozzie/gnat thing. We're getting loads of them here right now.

Janeyo, I am digging up loads of cockchafer (june bug) larvae ... they are under the grass lawn that I'm digging up. The adult lays eggs in the lawn and the grubs eat the roots.

[di]

Yuk!!!We call them Billywitches down here...really horrible things!!!(if I've got the right bug anyway?)
Thankfully the ones that venture into our garden tend to stay around a large tree right at the bottom of our neighbours...but just knowing they're there is enough to make my skin crawl...like TS's says,they get all in your hair...horrible things!!!
Do they have any uses???

[Lottieval]

Hi Raindancer, are they perhaps mayflies?I've not seen them in this part of the world but I've seen them at my daughter's near Malmesbury, I didn't know what they were. But your description of like large gnats seems to fit, they tend to 'bounce' up and down when they are flying, quite harmless but still make me feel itchy!

[sweetiepea]

As well as cockchafers, the term 'Billywitch' can be applied to stagbeetles.
Check out this link for their gross grubs. Yuck!

Gardener's Larva Guide

[SueA]

Thanks for that link Sweetiepea, those larvae are absolutely gruesome looking but the beetles are really very pretty! I haven't seen any round here but then I believe chafer grubs are often found in lawns & we don't have any lawn now.