Tens of thousands of caddisflies have been swarming over the Rajiv Rahadari in Telangana’s Karimnagar for the past couple of days. As they are huge in number and moving closely together, visibility of motorists has been affected as they have to slowly push through to cross the stretch by the Kakatiya canal on the outskirts of Karimnagar. In a video that has gone viral, motorists and drivers of cars and trucks can be seen struggling to move past the insects, with one motorist even skidding on the road as a result of poor visibility. 

The caddisflies, which are insects with aquatic larvae, have emerged in huge numbers by the Kakatiya canal on the Rajiv Rahadari state highway connecting Karimnagar to Hyderabad, posing a danger to movement of vehicles in that region. Karimnagar District Agriculture Officer V Sridhar, who inspected the location on directions from district authorities, told the media that samples of the insects from the location have been collected. “Caddisflies are found near water bodies or places where stagnant water is found. Certain species are also aggravated due to ecological imbalances, so that could also be a possible reason. Caddisflies come in groups and are attracted to light,” Sridhar said.

In order to tackle the problem of obstruction to vehicular movement, Sridhar said that “alternate light traps” have been proposed, which can divert and possibly kill the insects. Caddisflies have a life span of two to three days, he added. “We will discuss with district authorities about the best way to deal with this soon so motorists aren’t inconvenienced,” the District Agriculture Officer said, adding that the insects do not cause any damage to crops.  

Watch: Caddisflies swarm Karimnagar-Hyderabad highway

According to The New Indian Express, workers of Karimnagar Municipal Corporation have been engaged in a special drive to spray disinfectant on the stagnant water on the canal, which is believed to be one of the possible reasons for the caddisfly problem.