If you were merrily strolling down the road one day and looked up from your daydream to notice something that looked scarily like a funnel cloud edging towards you, what would be your immediate reaction? Stop and stare to find out what it is or just leg it in the opposite direction? This is something that photographer Ana Scarpa was faced with recently as she visited Leziria Grande at Vila Franca de Xira in Portugal.

It turns out that the cloud photographed above and below was not a tornado, but it was almost equally as horrifying. It was a huge, vertical swarm of insects. The photograph was taken at a distance of around a quarter of a mile, and Scarpa approximates that the swarm extended around 300 meters (1,000 foot) into the air.

“Earlier this year, I was finishing-up my photo shoot for the day, and I began to pack my things- when suddenly I saw in the sky [something] that I thought was a wind twister,” Scarpa told io9. “It was a very high funnel swinging to the left and to the right. I pointed my camera and began shooting before it hit me. But the funnel did not move toward me- and I thought it was so strange- so I got into my car and started to drive towards it, and that’s when I realized it was a mosquito twister.” According to Scarpa, the area is a breeding ground for mosquitoes because of numerous water branches that provide water for animals and harvests.

Image credit: Ana Filipa Scarpa.

Yuck. That is all.

H/T io9