People living in Southern England may have never thought that 3.5 trillion flying insects have been moving over their skies for decades. This annual mass insect migration happens before the area gets really cold as the critters depart for Africa for warmer, more bearable climates. Scientists who witnessed the terrifying natural phenomena would like to stay in the season and compared it to 20,000 flying reindeers.

In a report published in Science Daily, mass insect migrations actually contribute to seasonal exchanges of biomass and nutrients all over the surface of the Earth. But even with the large number of insects that actually move above the earth, their natural migration activities have remained unquantified.

A study was done by the University of Exeter and Rothamsted Research to actually measure this activity of high-flying insects over southern England skies. Specialized radar have found that more than 3 trillions of insects migrate over the area each year. 3.5 trillion flying insects was described as equivalent to 3,200 tons of biomass and is more than seven times the mass of 30 million song birds that move from the UK to Africa during the start of the winter.

Phys.org also reported about the mass migration citing the remarks of Dr. Jason Chapman of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall. He said that the bodies of insects are actually rich in nutrients but are underappreciated.

Chapman said that high-altitude insect migration is important n the annual animal movement in land ecosystems compared to oceanic migrations

Where these insects came from were not recorded but according to previous research, these creatures may have been to and from the UK from the English Channel and the North Sea. Furthermore, the study found seasonal variations happening from year to year but  overall northward spring movements of much larger insects were less significant compared to net southward movements happening during autumn over a period of 10 years.