Call it the day of the dragonfly.
A swarm of dragonflies descended upon surprised beachgoers on Saturday at Misquamicut State Beach, causing visitors to run for cover.
Video taken at the beach in Westerly showed thousands of the insects creating a dark cloud while beachgoers hid under blankets, The Associated Press reported. People could be heard screaming.
“One minute everything was calm. The next minute I saw the most dragonflies I’ve ever seen in my life,” Nicole Taylor, who captured video of the swarm, told WFSB. “It lasted for like three minutes, and then they were gone. It was a very strange experience.”
It was unclear what caused the cloud of colorful insects to swarm at the beach for several minutes before disappearing, the AP reported.
“It was weird. It was like there was a couple, and then there was more and then it was just like they were coming from the ocean and we’re just trying to process wow what is going on and you look up and there’s thousands in the air and all around you,” Paula Bellavance, of Putnam, told WFSB.
David Gregg, executive director of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, told WJAR that the dragonflies that swarmed at Misquamicut are common throughout New England.
“They’re primarily blue dashers,” Gregg told the television station. “That’s one of our most common dragonflies.”
Christina Vangel, who works at Alfie’s Beach Store across the street from Misquamicut, told the AP that workers had to shoo the dragonflies out of the business.
“As the day went on there were tons of them everywhere,” she told the news organization. “We had to close the doors.”
Dragonflies typically feed on insects like mosquitos and midges and do not normally sting or bite humans. A single dragonfly can eat between 30 and hundreds of mosquitoes in a single day, according to officials at the Meigs Point Nature Center at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, Connecticut.
Gale Ridge, an associate Scientist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, compared the insects’ quick stop at Misquamicut to a family heading to a fast food restaurant. Only instead of a burger with fries, they are sampling mosquitoes.
“It’s like the arrival of the cavalry as far as mosquito management is concerned,” Ridge told WFSB.
