As visitors to DeKorte Park and other Meadowlands locales may have noticed, we are getting a lot of Midges these days. The good news is that they don’t bite, and the birds (especially the Tree Swallows) love them. The bad news is they can be annoying if you walk too close to a shrub where they are congregating.
They are amazing bugs of the Chironomid family, and they have long “whiskers” on their heads, as evidenced from the two close-up photos (above and on the “jump.”)
More on Chironomids here.