They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the line
(like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to land
on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an almost
full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times and we
seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what they
are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them with my
electronic fly-swat

"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them with
my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6

"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:U0%Wn.94934$w51.78961@hurricane...

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6


That's a new 5p piece for scale

Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6

What coin is that? Can't tell if it's a 5p or 1p

wrote in message
...
Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6

What coin is that? Can't tell if it's a 5p or 1p

That's the 5p

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 12:32:02 +0100, "Mentalguy2k8"
wrote:


"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them with
my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6
OMG run their highly dangerous and will kill you if they bite you.




They are just harmless hoverflies.

"meme" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 12:32:02 +0100, "Mentalguy2k8"
wrote:


"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a
dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times
and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them
with
my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6

OMG run their highly dangerous and will kill you if they bite you.

I wish they would, they're irritating me to death!


They are just harmless hoverflies.

I'm not sure, they look more "wasp-ish" coloured in the pictures than my
little friends do.

On 01/07/10 15:21, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-07-01 13:30:39 +0100, meme said:

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 12:32:02 +0100, "Mentalguy2k8"
wrote:


"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a
dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at
times and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them
with
my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6
OMG run their highly dangerous and will kill you if they bite you.




They are just harmless hoverflies.

Not hoverflies. Those are striped and look like miniature wasps but are
entirely harmless and a gardener's friend.

Having not seen a wasp yet this year, my wife git stung by one yesterday.

Martin wrote:
Having not seen a wasp yet this year, my wife git stung by one yesterday.

Oh no, invisible wasp invasion!
It's like an episode of X-files!

(apologies, hope your wife is not in too much discomfort ;-)

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 14:21:57 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2010-07-01 13:30:39 +0100, meme said:

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 12:32:02 +0100, "Mentalguy2k8"
wrote:


"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them with
my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6
OMG run their highly dangerous and will kill you if they bite you.




They are just harmless hoverflies.

Not hoverflies. Those are striped and look like miniature wasps but
are entirely harmless and a gardener's friend.
Have you actually looked at the photo

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:27:18 +0100, meme wrote:

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 14:21:57 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2010-07-01 13:30:39 +0100, meme said:

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 12:32:02 +0100, "Mentalguy2k8"
wrote:


"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them with
my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6
OMG run their highly dangerous and will kill you if they bite you.




They are just harmless hoverflies.

Not hoverflies. Those are striped and look like miniature wasps but
are entirely harmless and a gardener's friend.
Have you actually looked at the photo
Ooops sorry Sacha that wasnt meant to be abrupt as I wrote it.

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 17:48:15 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2010-07-01 17:30:16 +0100, meme said:

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:27:18 +0100, meme wrote:

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 14:21:57 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2010-07-01 13:30:39 +0100, meme said:

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010 12:32:02 +0100, "Mentalguy2k8"
wrote:


"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them with
my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6
OMG run their highly dangerous and will kill you if they bite you.




They are just harmless hoverflies.

Not hoverflies. Those are striped and look like miniature wasps but
are entirely harmless and a gardener's friend.
Have you actually looked at the photo
Ooops sorry Sacha that wasnt meant to be abrupt as I wrote it.

I wondered what I'd done wrong - especially as the only meme I know is
my grandchildren's other grandmother!! Yes, I did look at the photo.
Why? Do you think they look like hoverflies? Or do we just experience
different hoverflies? Or call things by different names? To me,
hoverflies are striped and look like this:
http://taos-telecommunity.org/epow/E...er%20fly_s.jpg
I'm

familiar with those little black jobs aimlessly floating around in an
irritating fashion but not with hoverflies that look like that, behave
as a 'gang' or come into the house except, perhaps, accidentally. I
suspect we mean two different things as the OP says that his pests are
black.
Theres hundreds of different hoverflies and there not all exactly
straight forward striped.
They can be from 4-5mm long going upwards and come in all different
colours.
This is just one website and a small selection.
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/...overflies.html

On 01/07/2010 12:32, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a
dozen or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never
seeming to land on anything. They're coming in through an open door
(although an almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts
it at times and we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them
with my electronic fly-swat

Here's two that I zapped earlier:

http://tinypic.com/r/33mbr75/6


I'm no expert, but it looks like the Lesser House-fly, Fannia
canicularis, (Fanniidae). My book says that the male flies incessantly
around lights and other objects indoors. Larva feeds in various
decaying materials. There are many similar species.


--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

In general it is a waste of time trying to identify insects to species level unless you have a specialist key and a microscope, with the exception of a few large and clearly distinct species such as butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers and the like, or a few locally species-poor classes such as ants (we don't have very many kinds of ants in Britain). Field guides to British insects show only a small fraction of the species we find here. Once we get into areas such as flies, beetles, bugs, etc, there are many, many British species, most not shown in the consumer literature, that the amateur naturalist can't hope to distinguish unless they want to make a special hobby of it.

People have been saying "its not a hoverfly, because these are striped like a wasp etc". But actually there are large numbers of different species of hoverflies found in Britain alone, and they have a wide range of colourations. What is important with insects is the body pattern. It is obvious with just a glance with this one we see it is indeed a fly, ie Diptera, and not a thrips or a wasp (there are huge numbers of wasps too, mostly not black-and-yellow stinging things, but quite different things that mainly parasitise the larvae of other insects)

A lot of people have been saying this maybe a fruit fly. There are also many kinds of fruit fly, not all of which have red eyes like the common fruit fly usually does, in fact even the common fruit fly doesn't always have red eyes. But this don't look like no fruit fly either.

Someone suggests it might be a predator. But I am not aware of any diptera that are predatory on other insects.

Now I don't know my way around the diptera very well, but Spider has made an excellent spot, and it does look rather like Fannia canicularis. There is an excellent photo of one on Wikipedia. Whether that is exactly what this one is is probably going to depend on the details of the wing venation: with a magnifying glass to examine the wing venation, you might be able to confirm this is exactly what it is. But if it isn't F canicularis, it is plainly one of its close cousins. Very well spotted Spider.

"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
news:5K_Wn.94783$w51.88115@hurricane...
They're black and smaller than house flies. We're getting a lot in the
garden, they seem to fly/hover aimlessly underneath the washing on the
line (like gnats), but never seem to land on anything.

Same indoors, they congregate in the middle of the room, sometimes a dozen
or two, just moving around underneath the ceiling fan, never seeming to
land on anything. They're coming in through an open door (although an
almost full-lenght curtain is across it, the breeze lifts it at times and
we seriously need the fresh air)

I'll try and get a photo later on, but does anyone have any ideas what
they are, and how to get rid of them? I'm getting tired zapping them with
my electronic fly-swat

Possibly fruit flies (but all flies look the same to me). Check out your
compost heap - they often breed there where left-over fruit has been thrown
away.