Parasites can have important ecological consequences in aquatic ecosystems. For example, parasites reduce host fitness, potentially causing trophic cascades when hosts are key consumers or altering nutrient cycling when hosts are key detritivores. However, important first steps before identifying these impacts of parasites include identifying which host taxa are infected and how transmission occurs. We recently discovered a group of virulent microsporidian parasites that consistently infect Daphnia and other cladocerans, key aquatic grazers, in shallow ponds in Georgia, USA. Transmission is not horizontal among Daphnia and insects in the family Chironomidae, key aquatic detritivores, likely serve as hosts. The outbreaks consistently occur in spring, with 80% peaking between March 24 and May 28 (median day of maximum prevalence: April 14).1 Here, we report intra- and inter-annual variation in the severity of these outbreaks in 8 ponds for 4 years (2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024), along with composition changes in zooplankton communities. We also report seasonal variation in emergence rates of aquatic insects from these ponds in 2024, including three subfamilies of chironomid midges (Tanypodinae, Chironominae, and Orthocladinae) and two other midge families (Ceratopogonidae and Chaoboridae). A subset of these insects that emerged from ponds during outbreaks were sequenced for finer taxonomic identification and to test for the presence of the microsporidian parasites.