Why you’re seeing more fish flies at the lake this year

Manitobans going to the lake, beware. You won’t be alone.

Fish flies have been emerging near Manitoba lakes in recent weeks, including at Winnipeg Beach, and in high numbers.

The insects come out en masse to reproduce when water temperatures are ideal.

“It's been starting for the last week, and you're starting to see more of them,” said Taz Stuart, a local entomologist. “Especially with the extra rainfall we got in May, it's added to their prevalence, and you're going to see a lot more.”

Stuart said the numbers they’re seeing are not unusual for a wet spring.

Multiple fish flies are seen in Winnipeg Beach on July 10, 2024 (Pat Payjack)

“We didn't really have a really bad fish fly problem for the last four or five years as well, because we were in drought-like conditions,” he said. “So we're seeing the benefits of seeing more moisture.”

Stuart said the flies live for roughly 24 hours, and do not harm humans. While there is a smell associated with the fish flies, they tend to degrade quickly.

He added that the flies act as food for other animals around water.

“They’re helping the ecosystem,” Stuart said.

Patricia Payjack said she had never seen as many fish flies as she did this week while walking on the boardwalk in Winnipeg Beach.

"I'm glad they don't bite,” she said. “I never used to like them, because they would, if you touch a tree or something, they would be in them, and then there would just kind of be a cloud of them.”

Payjack said town workers for Winnipeg Beach do a good job of keeping the paths clean of dead fish flies, and they were gone later in the morning.