I’ve had to deal with huge swarms of these things every summer for the few years I’ve lived a mile away from a lake. I assumed they were mosquitoes until recently.
Is it some kind of midge fly? How can you tell? If I were to make an uneducated guess, I’d say it’s not a mosquito because there’s not a straight proboscis.
BTW, you don’t need a lake to breed them. Any standing water will do. Rainwater barrels, cow troughs, ditches…
In fact they don’t like lakes. Too much movement and predator.
If you got mosquito problems then I feel bad for you son. I got 99 problems but a ditch ain’t one.
Itch me!
My only mosquito problem is the noise they are making when they hit the electrical fly squatter.
I activate it when getting ready for bed, and when I turn off the lights, it only takes a few seconds before the fireworks starts. No hits so far this year.