Overview
- Roughly 480 to 500 million May beetles are expected to take off over the Hessisches Ried within days, especially across Landkreis Groß-Gerau and Darmstadt.
- Drivers face dusk swarms near the Mönchhof Interchange on the A67/A3, where in 2022 windshields were hit and traffic slowed to walking speed.
- The surge follows a four-year cycle in this region, with larvae developing underground for years and adults surviving only a few weeks.
- Scientists link the high numbers to centuries of floodplain drainage and recent drought that left warm, dry sandy soils ideal for egg laying and root-feeding larvae.
- Attempts with pesticides, fungi, and nematodes have not cut numbers, and forestry and NABU now back landscape water fixes, with prior soil sampling used to set the 2026 estimate.