Damn little fly-things. What are they and should I kill them?

Factual Questions
1

First off, a bit of background to identify these critters. I live in North Central Alberta, Canada. I have seen these little critters about everywhere I have ever been though so I think they are very widespread.

My back yard has TONS of these little fly things. I don’t know the name of them, but the fly around in clouds of several hundreds. They seem to usually live in the lawns of homes and you can especially see them in their little swarming “clouds” when the sun light hits them, flying above the grass about waist high. The little critters themselves are black and probably about 1/16" long. They seem to like landing on bright colors (like your shirt) but don’t do much once they land.

They are very easy to squish since they don’t try to get away. They definetly don’t have the reflexes of a house fly.

Now the problem. I have what I honestly think are 100s of thousands (if not a million) of these things in my backyard this year. I have a tree (A Mayday I think) in my backyard. Its about 12 feet tall and absolutely COVERED with these things. Every leaf must have 50-100 of them.

My tomato plants are the same way. Just absolutely covered with these little bastards.

I am not sure if they are eating the tree leaves or Tomato leafs, but there are sooo many of them they can’t be healthy for them. They have to eat something…

So, heres the questions:

  1. What are these little critters?

  2. Should I kill them?

  3. If so, whats the best way? My Tomato plant is making Tomatoes of course, so while I am not against the use of Insecticides I would rather not spray anything on the plants that could kill me.

Thanks

2

Your description makes me think that they are gnats.

Cecil has talked about them in the past, but didn’t indicate what they feed on. However, it’s not encouraging that they’re related to the fruit fly.

Here’s the result of a google search using “trypetidae”. Gnat is a generic term, and if that word is used in Google, it will send you in a completely different direction.

I’ll leave it to you to discern which of the links Google provides are the most helpful. :slight_smile:

3

Try a bug zapper. You’ll need an extension cord but should be able to hang it in the tree. I got mine at a thrift store for :cool:

4

When they are swarming they are having a big orgy. Thats how they have sex. I don’t know what happens if there is only one of them. A can of Raid ought to do it.

5

Not sure, but they could be some kind of gnat or midge

First of all, it’s probably useless since more will probably come from wherever the first ones came from.

Second, it’s probably unneccesary. Many adult insects eat little or nothing, and adult gnats or midges are almost certainly not going to chow down on your tree or tomatoes.

Bug zappers are both harmful and useless.

Spraying Raid around won’t kill you, but probably won’t kill them very effectively either.

I suggest that, unless they are extremely annoying, be patient. Their swarming season may be fairly short, and they will disappear on their own.

6

Thanks, handy, for providing that information just in case bernse didn’t bother to check the link to Cecil’s article…where Unca Cece says the exact same thing. :rolleyes: