Will midges swarm Lake Balaton’s shores once more this year, crawling into ears, noses, and mouths?

Last August, the invasion of non-biting midges made it impossible to linger on Lake Balaton’s shores. The insects infiltrated everywhere: cars, houses, people’s ears, mouths, and noses. This year, they will return, but the Balaton Limnological Institute is cautiously optimistic about their numbers.

Lake Balaton became unbearable

As we reported, by last August, it was untenable to remain in many spots along the Balaton shoreline. The non-biting midge plague was not merely an irritation for locals, rendering the area unlivable, but a nightmare for visiting tourists too, and that in the height of the season.

A short but stunning video made in Siófok last August:

A layer of midges floating on the lake’s surface was several centimetres thick in places, while swarms blanketed the shores almost everywhere, coating cars, pavements, and even house walls. Strolling or even breathing outdoors grew arduous amid the clouds of insects, which, though harmless biters, made any stay utterly untenable.

“From Füred to Boglár, the water was choked with these dead midges, as it was on Siófok’s Silver Beach too. Plenty of folk are repulsed at the thought of swimming,” a local lady told Blikk at the time. A lifelong resident of Balatonföldvár and Siófok, she had never witnessed anything like it. Many even contemplated fleeing the “Hungarian sea”. Spiders, fattened on the bounty, ballooned to giant sizes in the area last year.

Here’s another video from last year:

Fewer midges this year, perhaps

According to the Balaton Limnological Institute, last year’s profusion stemmed from high algae concentrations and extreme heat around the lake. Yesterday, they posted on Facebook that they anticipate a smaller emergence this season.

The institute’s researchers note that the mass of spring larvae currently developing in the lake’s sediment—prior to emergence—is roughly 40 per cent of 2025 levels across the entire body of water. Another departure from last year: the larvae’s distribution is unusually uniform.

Researcher Somogyi Boglárka forecasts emergence intensity in May and June around the Keszthely and Szigliget basins at decade-long averages.

Hotspots for larger swarms

The lake’s central and eastern reaches may still see above-average swarms, though—just a third of last year’s maddening quantities are expected to hatch. Weather in May and June will dictate the emergence’s trajectory. Persistent warming of water and air temperatures could see the midge plague fizzle out by early summer, the researchers suggest.

If you missed:

Shocking VIDEOS capture apocalyptic midge invasion at Lake Balaton

Locals terrified as swarms of midges invade Lake Balaton, unleashing giant spiders – VIDEOS