--- title: Shadflies Bridge Video: It Will Literally Make Your Skin Crawl description: You've been forewarned canonical: https://time.com/3970564/shadflies-iowa-bridge/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-24T01:21:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:29.281Z og:title: This Video of Shadflies Taking Over a Bridge is Terrifying og:description: You've been forewarned og:url: https://time.com/3970564/shadflies-iowa-bridge/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Video of Shadflies Taking Over a Bridge is Terrifying twitter:description: You've been forewarned twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Video of Shadflies Taking Over a Bridge Will Make Your Skin Crawl by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 24, 2015 1:21 AM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 24, 2015 1:21 AM UTC The brave souls at the [Iowa Department of Transportation](https://www.facebook.com/iowadot/posts/921297724583903) battled thousands of shadflies and lived to tell the tale. It’s hatching season for shadflies, also known as Mayflies, which are aquatic, dragonfly-like insects that hatch in huge swarms, typically in May. They dwell near fresh water, which likely explains why they were drawn to the Savanna/Sabula bridge in Eastern Iowa. Last weekend, officials were called to the bridge over the Mississippi River to literally plow the massive swarm of flies off, the [Iowa DOT](https://www.facebook.com/iowadot/posts/921297724583903) explained in a Facebook post. According to one official, the flies were piled as high as their ankles. The swarms of flies also made the road slick, leading to dangerous conditions for drivers. Watch the video of the ordeal at your own risk. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3970564/shadflies-iowa-bridge/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3970564/shadflies-iowa-bridge/"},"headline":"This Video of Shadflies Taking Over a Bridge Will Make Your Skin Crawl","datePublished":"2015-07-24T01:21:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:29.281Z","description":"You've been warned","url":"https://time.com/3970564/shadflies-iowa-bridge/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Iowa","Viral Videos","bugs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3970564/shadflies-iowa-bridge/","name":"This Video of Shadflies Taking Over a Bridge Will Make Your Skin Crawl"}}]}] ```