swarms of small black flies hovering all over my lawn

nicholas.piper

Hi All - first thing this morning I had no flies however mid morning swarms of hundreds of small black flies we hovering a few inches above the lawn. Quite a few of them landed and stuck on the surface water of my daughters paddling pool but 99% continue to hover all over the lawn. Please can anyone advise on what they are and perhaps suitable lawn treatment?? I have noticed that they avoid shaded areas of lawn but just stick to sunlight area's of lawn - very odd indeed.

AnniD

Hello Nicholas,
They could be something called Frit flies. I've heard of them but never seen them.

wild edges

There's been a few different fly hatches here too, hard to say what yours are without a photo sorry. Best treatment is to sip a nice cup of tea while admiring the healthy ecosystem at work.

Dovefromabove

Don’t worry ... they’ll fly off soon ... they won’t do any harm, which is something we can’t say about insecticide eh? 

 Don’t want to go using stuff like that if you’ve little ones using the garden 😊 

nicholas.piper

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I like the sound of having a cup of tea and doing nothing but my neighbour seems to think they could be fruit fly /gnats which may explain patches in the lawn. Unfortunately I'm not sure how to treat!!?? 

Dovefromabove

Attracting birds, frogs, roads etc to your garden will help nature to keep in balance 😊 

Wilderbeast

@Dovefromabove I'm sure attracting roads won't help nature at all 🤣🤣🤣

Dovefromabove

Oh bu**er 🙄 flippin autocorrect seems not to allow for my constant references to wildlife ... 

Wilderbeast

@Dovefromabove I'm sure attracting roads won't help nature at all 🤣🤣🤣

Fairygirl

@Wilderbeast- but it does cause hiccups.....