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Chironomids are also sometimes known Buzzers and Midges at various parts of their life cycle. They are part of the Chironomidae family of the order Diptera - True Flies. They are very small and have a similar life cycle to Mayflies,  Caddisflies, Dragonflies and Damselflies and go through four stages in their development: egg, larva, pupa and adult.

When fish are taking Chironomids the Chironomids are generally available in large numbers. The Lava is between 6 & 15 mm in length and is generally a blood red legless maggot. In the laval form they live in the detritus sediment in the bottom of lakes and streams.

Jelly worm

Epoxy midge

Blood worm

As they mature into pupae, whilst the size only increases marginally, the colour generally changes to green, gray or black and a bulbous wing case and curved abdomen develop. In their late pupa stage they are commonly referred to as buzzers.

Black buzzer

Alpine buzzer

Chironomid

When its time to emerge the pupae swim to the surface like a “mosquito wriggler” and break through the surface tension and hatch into small generally non-biting mosquito like flies that are sometimes known as midges. Whilst the individuals are too small to represent with a fly they do, when the midge hatch in large numbers they do ball up in mating ball like masses of hundreds of individual midge and they can be represented by flies imitating those balls of midge

Midge ball

Gray duster

Gray duster variant

Whilst trout do search out lava amongst the detritus matter and eat lava that have been disturbed by wind and wave action it is generally the free swimming and pupae that are most often eaten by trout. Whilst the lava is generally found in the lower reaches the pupa can be found in a wide range of depths from very shallow to up to around 15 meters.

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