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Comment by lkrubner | Hacker News Reader

I have a question. Does anyone know why insects sometimes go so high? I went to Chicago last year and I went to the top of the Hancock building and I went to top floor, the observatory, to look out and see the surrounding area. And a dragonfly flew by outside. Why would it be up that high? What's the point? There is nothing up there. On the wide open plains of the west, there are not many reasons for insects to go so high, so why do they?

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I remember talk about a similar ladybug swarm back when I was a kid. It was a dry summer and it was assumed they were looking for areas with more water.

Other than that, insects are often quite small and their altitude varies with the weather. Low-flying swallows are seen as a sign of coming rain here in Finland, as the insects are closer to the ground when the atmospheric pressure is low.

Usually migration, or just because they got caught by the wind/hot air bubble. It's not like a fall from any height can harm them anyway.

https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100204/full/news.2010.54.ht...

https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/l...

I'm just speculating, but safety might be a reason. "Nothing up there" means there are fewer predators around. And if they do want to reach you, it will cost them a lot of work, while you got free potential energy from an updraft.

Or the annoyance of that one mosquito making up to your 45th story apartment in NYC, how does it know to get up there and through my tiny cracked window!?

They're light and so probably caught in an updraft. Then, sensing your CO2, they found you.

You may have standing water nearby.

On the other hand, it's NYC. There's standing water everywhere.

The disintegrating wooden water tanks on the roof?

Reaching for the stars?

It may have been carried up by an updraft along a warm side of the building.

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