Be Aware of Midge Flies & Red Worms

Red Worm and Midge Fly 

Does your lagoon system or wastewater treatment plant suffer from midge fly outbreaks? Midge flies, or chironomids, which resemble mosquitoes but don’t bite, commonly occur in wastewater treatment and lagoon systems along lake shores.

Midges are often seen in large mating swarms over water. They lay their eggs in the water and in about ten days these eggs hatch to form larvae, often called red worms or “bloodworms” because of the presence of hemoglobin in the blood. Bloodworms love the nutrient-rich conditions in a wastewater treatment plants and feed off the bacteria and sludge. This is why a wastewater plants with a lot of red worms can watch their mixed liquor go down even though they are not wasting. In ten days, the bloodworms mature into midge flies and start the cycle again.

Midge Fly Life-Cycle

Midge flies have four stages to their 10 day life cycle.

1. The adult midge
2. The egg mass, which you’ll find in the wastewater plant
3. The egg forms a bloodworm
4. The bloodworm forms the pupa, which hatches into the adult midge

Additionally, sometimes the bloodworms will colonize on the side of a tank. When they colonize, that’s called cocooning.

How Do You Eliminate Midge Flies?

If possible, locate where midges are breeding. This may be a pool of standing water on your property or another area where water collects like bird baths or fish ponds. Midges will fly a quarter of a mile from their breeding grounds, so identifying this may be hard to do.

If it is possible, remove outside light sources to discourage the presence of midges. You may also want to replace white light bulbs with bulbs that are tinted pink, yellow, or orange, as these colors are least attractive to not only midges, but a variety of other insects. Biting Midges will actually not stray very far from their breeding grounds, so if they are present in your yard, just moving a few feet away will be all you need.

QM Mosquito Trap

How do QM mosquito traps attract and kill midges? Midges are as same as mosquitoes that are first attracted to a trap by smell. They can smell CO2 around 100 feet from a trap and start to fly towards the source. Next Octenol and Lactic Acid start to be perceived around 50 feet. As the insect continues toward the source, the color, lights and apparent movement in some mosquito traps add more attractants.

Why is QM mosquito trap better than the other? The shape, size, color and height of the mosquito machine can make a huge difference. So does the amount of CO2, octenol and/or lactic acid released. Some frequencies of lights work better than others. The way the fans are designed to draw them in makes a big difference. Finally, placement of the devices is very important. A good trap in the wrong location will not be effective. MBOX midges trap uses a new and highly effective method to catch mosquitoes. First we have to understand that only female mosquitoes need blood (protein) in order to lay eggs. Female mosquitoes track their victim through CO2 up to a range of 50meters, combined with the sense of smell of H2O, female mosquitoes and midges are very effective in tracking their victim. QM mosquito trap is the best one to prevent midges .http://mbox-qm.com