Can the population of insects/bugs vary each season in a specific place?

Absolutely. And weather plays a great part in it. For example, in San Diego, two years ago we had a huge infestation of alfalfa looper moths due to abundant winter rains.

Flies aren’t cyclical, but if the temperature is warm, the larvae has a better chance of hatching versus remaining in a dormant state. There is a chance that they will be more prevalent if something is attracting them nearby, such as improper composting, some manures being used for mulch, dog poop, or something dead. Have you asked anyone in your area if they have noticed it as well?

Some other folks noticed ants and flies. It has been particularly humid this summer here.
This whole town is a compost heap, so that could be it.

Of course.

Wild populations any creature are effected by a number of factors including weather extremes, availability of food and water, population of predator species in the area, etc…

Any change that is beneficial to the breeding habits of a species will give you more of those bugs in any given year. Temperature, moisture, available food, and lack of predators all play a role just like with larger species.

Our insect menace this year seemed to be June beetles. Those little suckers were everywhere! Usually on summer nights, we’ll see a few hanging out on the windows, attracted by lights. This year, as soon as the sun went down there would be dozens of them crawling on the outside of our windows. They ate all of my basil. :( We also had a lot more Japanese beetles than we usually do. When the kids and I went to pick raspberries, the Japanese beetles were all over the raspberry bushes. They make a loud buzzing noise when they fly, and they kept landing on us. I’d never seen so many beetles on the raspberries before. Our summer was much hotter and drier than usual, so maybe it had something to do with that.

@MissAusten

Our June beetle populations have crashed; I think due to some cold snaps that were harsher than usual the last couple of winters. We used to get dozens on a summer night; the last couple of summers I have only seen one or two all summer.

I know it sounds like an obvious question, but I’ve never in my life seen so many #Q$$%^#$%% flies in this area and it’s making me CRAZAAY!

@MissAusten I don’t envy you…many summers were spent in the hot sun picking Japanese beetles off of the raspberry bushes and dropping them into an old pickle jar with some gasoline in the bottom.

Has anyone experienced the 17-year locusts (cicadas)? They cover everything and leave behind their creepy molting shells.

@SundayKittens I don’t know where you are located, but for your sake, I hope it gets cold quickly.

@Pied_Pfeffer Cicadas are pretty common around here. I used to enjoy collecting their shells when I was a kid. (heck, I still think they are kind of cool…)

@Pied_Pfeffer I’m a little warped….but I would love to see the mass emergence of cicadas! For a while, at least, but I can see how the noise and just the sheer numbers of bugs would get old in a hurry. My kids get so excited when the cicadas come out each summer! They search all of the tree trunks in our yard and our neighbor’s yard for the empty nymph skins. My son collected a Tupperware bowl full of them one year! We usually manage to find a couple that haven’t shed their nymph skin yet and get to watch. I took this picture of one in our backyard a couple summers ago.

@SundayKittens Can you figure out what kind of flies they are? Blowflies, house flies, horse flies, robber flies? Knowing exactly what they are will also tell you what they eat and where they lay eggs. Then, you can possibly eliminated those food sources and cut down on the number of flies. The website www.bugguide.net might help with an identification.

They’re just plain old rude houseflies, always up in my bidnessss.

@pied_pfeffer Cicada shells were the terror of every little girl on the playground when I was a kid. Shudder. Creepy.

I live in the mid-south and it is finally getting cool. DIE, SUCKAS, DIE!