When mayflies swarm: Watch as a massive horde envelops a Louisiana gas station

Some said was like a scene straight out of a horror film, reported Fox8.

Another called it hair-raising, reported WGNO.

The swarm of mayflies Slidell, La. resident Hickman encountered Monday night at a gas station along MIlitary Road was so big, he thought better of getting out of his car. He preferred coasting on fumes to the next station to ending up with the little buggers "in my mouth, up my nose," he told WWLTV.

"There were so many of them," he told the station. "I've never seen that many swarm."

Several outlets reported that "hundreds of thousands" of the pests descended upon that particular gas station.

Hickman's wife posted another video to Facebook, which had been viewed nearly 2 million times as of Wednesday morning. The mayflies covered both gas pumps, obscured the overhead lights and buzzed incessantly.

Sandy McCormick, another Slidell resident, told the Biloxi Sun-Herald that when she's encountered them in the past they usually just gather on the ground, "and when you drive over them they make a 'mayfly dust cloud' behind the car."

The term "mayfly" is actually a little misleading, according to Entomology Today, which says that the critters can appear in any month, though they're more common during late spring and early summer, which is mating season.

They're also attracted to light, like moths. So the party at the gas station in Slidell was probably the mayfly meet-up of a lifetime for just about everyone involved. They emerge from their freshwater homes about halfway through their life, and from there on, "it's all about reproduction," Nick Di Cresce, a naturalist at Lake St. Clair in Michigan, told Entomology Today.

This story was originally published May 30, 2018 at 12:05 PM with the headline "When mayflies swarm: Watch as a massive horde envelops a Louisiana gas station."