Shadfly & Mayfly Visitor Feedback. For the true lover of insects and the beauty of nature.
Dear Shadfly Dot Com,
WOW! I was so surprised to come across a site about Shadflies, while trying to find pictures of the insect for a friend of mine! Let me tell you, I've had an obsession with these strange little guys ever since I can remember! My family STILL talks about how strange I was with them; ever since I learned to walk, till I grew up enough to know it was 'weird', I used to put these bugs ALL OVER ME, and give them 'walks'. NO KIDDING! I'd be all dressed up in a frilly outfit taking Shadflies for a stroll....I wish I had pictures! I'd even go as far as spending hours rescuing them from being squished, drowning, or caught in spider webs. I even recall taking out a couple of pins to detangle their wings after removing them from a web....and crying when I was unsucessful. (I'd then have to make sure they were safe from harm on a tree or plant....)
What a fantasic job on the site! I hope to get some awesome pictures of them this summer, as I just took up photography....and send them in to your site! Do you mind if I put a link to your page, on mine? (CatsSnaps.com). Thanks! :-)
~cAt*
CatsSnaps.com
Dear Shadfly Dot Com,
I've been living in the Bay my whole life, and I still can't get myself to like them. They've already started with their infestation here, and I just can't seem to get away from them. The familiar sound of Shads being squished by cars had started to float through my open window. Last year they were here for over a month (even for Heritage Festival!), and I really hope that they don't stay that long this year...though with my luck, they'll stay until the end of the summer. Lol, anyways, this is a great site, and I'm glad I read about where they come from, I will no longer ever swim in Lake Nipissing again around Shad season!!
North Bay Resident
Dear Shadfly Dot Com,
Cool site. Last year we had so many shad flies for a very short amount of time. This year, lots less, but their carcasses are still clinging to the windows. (Collingwood, ON). Thanks for the site!
Linda / Collingwood
Dear Shadfly Dot Com,
I cant help but to laugh at this site. We were just in North Bay last week and they had the worst infestation in over 30 years. I was born there, and now live in Fort Worth, TX. We rented a cottage on Lake Nippissing and they arrived, by the millions. My husband and I were going out downtown to their street festival that we dubbed the "Shadfly Festival" and had to turn around on Lakeshore Drive to go back and get the kids at the cottage to show them the shads.
I took them to the local grocery store parking lot and parked under a light, it was UNBELIEVABLE!!! There were shads 6"-8" deep, so of course I had to do a doughnut or two on them. Locals thought we were crazy, Texas plates, skidding on shads. Locals said that was the worst infestation since 1968.
My husband and I also met online and he is a big hockey fan, so I had to take him home to my hockey family. In 2001 we got married and went to North Bay for out honeymoon, the shads were just over then. This year, we decided to make a family vacation of it and they were in full swing the weekend we arrived (July 5th). Driving down the streets and watching the people swinging their arms was so hilarious, that my husband also named it the shadfly shuffle.
I was just curious if there was a site or not and punched it in. I went as far as to wake him up and show him your site. When we just returned to Texas, I had to take my van in to get cleaned, the operators at the carwash didn't believe that it was "bug" residue in the wheel wells, they thought I had run over some tar or something. Several minutes of scrubbing and they couldn't believe it. Needless to say I tipped them well. I have a pic I will email you of one shedding their skin. It was a great trip, but the fishing sucked. lol.
Thanks for the great site.
Richard and Cathie Parker and Family.
See the pic that Cathie sent to Shadfly.com
Dear Shadfly Dot Com,
Well, found your website through a search to look up on fish flies, as they are known in Manitoba. They come out here at Victoria Beach in mid July, now, and as I recall, late June in Norway House. The thickest I have seen them, however, was like your reviewer driving home. I was driving back from Flin Flon, going through the area around Grand Rapids, and they overwhelmed my windshield washer for the 2 hour section of road. I had to get out to scrape and scrub off the windshield several times to keep on driving. My old Toyota 4 wheel drive never got bogged down in them, though, and indeed the roads were not THAT greasy. Interesting web site, thanks.
Ron Mundy MD, Sechelt, B.C.
Dear Shadfly Dot Com,
I too was born and raised in North Bay. I know the shadflys well and I go back regularly. Just last week I brought my husband and 3 stepkids back for a reunion we were having there. Hmm SHADFLY season. They couldn't believe it and it rekindled my interest so I looked it up on the internet to explain why only in North Bay and what they are all about. I didn't know the whole story, so thank you!
Lynn in Vancouver
Hi There,
Nice to see other people like shads as much as I do. Good job on the web site. There are some things I never really knew about shads. Now, you want to hear something really funny? During the last few years I've developed an allergy to shads. I don't know how, but as soon as they arrive I start the runny nose, sneezing and sore eyes. This is the worst year ever.... Boy some dumb luck I have living here. There is your laugh for the day.
George Winters
North Bay
Dear Shadfly.com
Shadfly.com was contacted by John B. Lee regarding a fun poetry project at Canadore College. Click Here to read all about the Shadfly Poems!
Dear Shadfly.com
Well i find this a very interesting web site and would like to thank you for all the information. i am a newcomer to North Bay and am experiencing the shadfly season for the first time. at first, when there were only a few, i found them very interesting and enjoyed looking at them. now, they are everywhere and im afraid to go outside; afraid i will end up screaming and running like a maniac down the street if one lands on me. not to mention, the disgusting noise they make when they are stepped on, squished, or run over. i describe it as popping bubble wrap paper, and have to plug my ears as a car drives by. why do they even come out if they dont last very long? by the way, are there any other places(towns, cities,provinces) that have shadflies? i just moved from toronto, and shadflies would never survive down there! i was just curious because i think if i have to move again, i will make sure its not in another area that experiences this. im sorry to everyone who loves them, but im a city girl, and mosquitos, spiders, and other bugs are one thing. but shadflies are too much. i will be happy when they are gone, and hopefully will continue with a great summer. thanx again for this interesting site and i will visit again.
Sincerely,
michelle / via hotmail
My son and I were discussing when the shadflies usually arrive. I think it is usually about the first 2 weeks in July, but he thinks it is usually at the end of May and that this year they are late. Can you settle this one? Thanks.
Sincerely,
Deb
The humming of shadflies has started here. I loved the photo of shadfly grouping on white. Have a query. My friend Moe once told me that these flies hatched on the Lake. Is this a fisherman's tale? Thanks,
Margaret Voorhaar
Port Stanley ON
What a great site!!! I was born in North Bay and lived there off and on over the years. The 1st time I can remember seeing the shads, they were stuck to window of the Joke Shop on Main Street. I thought they were trick bugs, until I saw them on EVERY window, and wondered why all the stores were using joke bugs!! It was nice to have a cottage on four mile lake, just to get away from them. They never made it that far! This site really brings it all back.
Tara
Edmonton
Oh my goodness. I love this site. I grew up on the St. Lawrence River in Odgdensburg, Ny across from Brockville, Ontario. We knew summer was coming, when the Shads came! In the 80's as a kid, they would take over the town. You almost could not walk down the street without being covered with these freaky flys. But now as the Zebra Muscles have come into the water, they are eating the eggs of the shadfly, decreasing their presence every year.
LV
Hotmail.
Are shadflies only in North BAy or are they found all over Canada. And if they are found all over Canada does North Bay have the highest concentration of them. thanks
Amy Restoule
Hotmail.
Hello:
Was just wondering about those things, I was born and raised in North Bay and remember the smell, and you know it just wouldn't be summer at home without the smell and the crunch under your feet. I remember when my Dad would bring them home on his clothes, he used to work at CPR and walked back home after work from downtown, we lived out trout lake way and the only time we really saw them where on his clothes, very few seemed to fly passed Cassells Street.
Now when I hear about shads I think of home so many years ago. I live in Alberta now and have never see anything like the shad out here. I check out the North Bay Nugget on the net all the time to see what is new at home, and when I came across your article I had to write to you, thanks for having a site for the shad.
Sincerely,
Marg (Edes) Maysfield
Alberta
Hello:
As a former North Bayite, growing up in Ferris, I have many memories of the dreaded shadfly. The stench, the skidding, the 'close-your-mouth-tightly'....all common occurrences for a few weeks every summer! Your site is quite interesting! Good luck surviving the shads this summer North Bayites!
Nancy
Hello:
Glad to know there are other weird people in the world who love the shad. Live in Powassan but have often been around when the shads are. Think they are one of the coolest flies around and although they are a bit on the high side after they die I guess most things are. Don't mind in the least when they light upon me and have admired how dainty and airy they are since I was a young kid and visited here. One of natures truly magnificent creations don't you think. Cheers for you and your wife for appreciating them as they should be!!
Murriel
Powassan, Ontario
Eeeewwwww, shads!
No matter how we try to avoid them, we manage to meet up with them on just about every summer visit to our hometown of North Bay. Our wildest experience with the shadflies occurred on a July evening, about 5 summers ago. We had just left my mother's home, 20 miles west of the city. Not long after hitting the highway, shadflies began hitting our windshield. Our wipers were of little use; they only spread the brown mess that was slowly obscuring our view of the road. By the time we arrived in North Bay, we had only a few square inches of clear space on our windshield. Knowing that my father would not have been pleased to see the putrid mess we were about to bring into his driveway, we stopped at his neighbour's house. As we had predicted, this neighbour was in his yard, watering his flowers. He was only too happy to 'hose us down', and we were relieved to park our 'de-bugged' car in my father's white gravel driveway!
Val
Yearly North Bay visitor
Hi:
Just saw your interesting story in the paper today. We just came in from fishing and the dear little things are just coming out. But like you say we should be happy to see them, and I guess in those circumstances we are. Thanks for the article when I see them in the water I will have a different feeling for them now. Thanks again.
Nancy
North Bay, Ontario
Dear Sh@dboy and Sh@dgirl,
Great Website!!
I grew up in North Bay and now live in Calgary. What great pictures and fond memories of the shadflies.
Keep up the good work!!
Sue
Calgary, Alberta
Dear Sh@dboy and Sh@dgirl,
I had never heard of Shad flies til I went to North Bay and no one there even warned us that such a phenomenon might unfold in our presence. At first, I was horrified at the millions of these flies on the door, lights, virtually everywhere when we were about to leave the apartment of our relative. Walking back to the campground, we could hear them squashing under the wheels of the cars. It wasn't until the next day that anyone even told us what they were. I then felt for them and hence the poem which I wrote in about 10 minutes as we were driving away from North Bay and the Shad flies....
here goes..
SHAD FLIES OF NORTH BAY
enwrapped in the comfort of my cocoon
awaiting that day of freedom and death anticipation
of rising
of flight
shedding the growth of 3 years like a cloak at dusk
rising silvery wings unfolding
shining in the luminous glow of the street lamps and windows
he feels my closeness and I join him
our hearts beating fast in the passionate night
then, tired, we unfold, exhausted from birth and our union
we lie still, only sporadic slight movements
reaching for each other...
Kathy
Dear Sh@dboy and Sh@dgirl,
I had the pleasure of staying in North bay during the summer of 1978 and have a lot of great memories of my time there. One of these, of course, was Shad fly season! Riding a motorcycle at the time, I well remember the greasy patches that I and other motorists created from the little buggers on the road. And the odor, that was something memories are made of! The local radio station played a short clip at the time based on the 'Jaws" theme dedicated to the critters. (Size and ferocity replaced by overwhelming numbers?)
Looking forward to returning some day.
Regards,
Steve Bamford
Sydney Australia
Dear Sh@dfly.com
Hi, I just thought I'd like to tell you that down here in Port Burwell on the north shore of Lake Erie we are getting suffocated by billions/gazillions of shad flies. It is impossible to leave the house without getting bombarded by these things. I've never seen them so bad as they are this year.
I own a small nursery selling Old Garden Roses and culinary herbs. Right now, everything is dying on me because I can't stand to be out there watering without breathing!!
It usually takes me about 3 hours to water everything, but by that time I'll be covered from head to toe in shad s***! My house, van and gardens are solid with these bugs.
Regards,
Kathryn
www.mockingbird-lane.com
Dear Sh@dfly.com
I am searching for the species of shadfly that lives near Ogdensburg, New York. I have heard this species is rare and may only be found in one other area on Earth, in South America. Any help appreciated.
Thanks, Herb
Dear Sh@dfly.com
You are one sick puppy! I love your page - it points out what I've always said - you might as well learn to like them if you live here, because there's no getting away from them! I will send this page to my
girlfriend in England - she grew up here.
Rena
Dear Sh@dfly.com
Read about you in The Nugget and related totally to your story! My husband lived in North Bay and I lived in B.C. and we met online too! I moved here in 1996, and experienced my first Shadfly season within a couple of months of my arrival. I hated them at first (running screaming down the street at the Winks trying to get away from them!), but I must admit - they've grown on me and I'm rather proud of the little fellas now.
Love the website - I'll definitely be back to visit!
Diane
Dear Sh@dfly.com
Love the site! Surfed in just days before the article in The Nugget... I thought I was the only person who actually digged these bugs! We had them in Ottawa but certainly not in the numbers that I've seen up here in North Bay. Like your story of bringing one into work... I don't have to do this, I work at the airport and we have PLENTY there already! Cheers!
Dave
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