Central has been hit with a swarm of tiny little bugs commonly called “blue gnats.” As it turns out, they aren’t gnats at all.

Jason Irwin, associate professor of biological sciences, said they are actually woolly aphids, a subset of aphids, a type of insect that feeds off of plant materials and can be found all around the world.

“Aphids are common garden pests,” Irwin said. “They’re unusual because they reproduce parthenogenetically.”

In other words, the females produce babies without mating and they produce many of them in a short amount of time. Furthermore, their children are actually clones of themselves.

“The females just give birth like crazy,” Irwin said. “It’s amazing.”

Irwin said the last generation, which are born with wings, fly up and find evergreen trees to lay their eggs for the winter so they will survive. He said that’s the reason they fly–to find a place for their eggs to survive over the winter.

“At the end of summer, the last generation has wings,” Irwin said. “It’s the winged generation; those ones fly up and mate.”

Irwin added that woolly aphids prefer areas with lots of trees. This is the primary reason they swarm Central’s campus–the area is rife with trees perfect for them to lay their eggs in for winter.

Students and staff walking around campus may have noticed a few dead woolly aphids in their hair and on their clothes.

“It’s just that they’re tiny. They’re not particularly sticky,” Irwin said.

He added that they’re fuzzy and they don’t want to be on people, they just land on people passing by and happen to stick.

He also said if you catch one and just look at it closely, they’re actually pretty cool looking.

Despite their interesting aspects, plenty of students at Central still find them irksome.

“They’re annoying and they’re everywhere,” said Alyssa Steenerson, undecided freshman. “Always there, always flying around, always inhaling them.”

Steenerson said that she notices them most on the walkway from Davies Hall to the SURC, but that she sees them pretty much everywhere.

“I would notice them in the ends of my hair and stuff,” Steenerson said.

Junior Mariana Cruz shared Steenerson’s disposition.

“They’re horrible,” Cruz said. “I’ve gotten a couple in my mouth.”

Jason Morales, undecided sophomore, had a different approach to the woolly neighbors.

“I think bugs are bugs, okay? They’re going to roam around the world,” Morales said. “That’s what they do.”

Irwin added that, just like last year, the woolly aphids will surely die off as the weather becomes colder.