Clouds of green gnats are taking over NYC. Here is what it looks like in Brooklyn right now. #nyc #gnats #bugs pic.twitter.com/wUIO5Cwl0v

— Tyler Donaghy (@tylerpdonaghy) June 29, 2023

Seems like there’s another plague du jour. D. wrote: “What are all the bugs in Tribeca? This evening around 6:30pm we were taking our usual walk on the Hudson and there were tons of little bugs flying around — it was impossible to walk. I was wearing black and I could see them on my clothes. Everyone was waiving their hands in from their face to get the bugs away. Never saw this before and I have been on this area since 2004!”

I was going to reach out to the DEP when Gothamist beat me to it by getting to a scientist at CUNY: “Experts say they are aphids, but are still unsure what type of aphids and why there are so many of them now…David Lohman, a biology professor at the City College of New York who earned his doctorate by dissecting the genitals of woolly aphids, says New York’s current aphid clouds are not woolly aphids. ‘These are males or females that are going out to mate,’ Lohman said. ‘My impression was that this usually happened in the fall rather than the summer, but it might be different in different species.'”

“It’s possible that we’ll see a flush of ladybugs or some other insect in response to all these aphids,” Anderson told Gothamist.

It’s tough on us New Yorkers when nature gets in the way. Yuck.

FYI, the spotted lantern fly is still a menace and you should still squish them.