swarms of flies outside in the sun

[Deleted User]

We have had these for weeks now. They come out when it is warm, sunny and still. Our back garden is a suntrap and about 5 degrees hotter than the field above. These flies love congregating on any plastic or wood and there are hundreds. They are noisy and disappear around 3 pm. They are about half the size of a bluebottle and have a dark brown abdomen. Other than that I cannot pick any distinguishing features.

I am so so glad that we had fly mesh blinds fitted when we moved in, it was for wasps then but is keeping the flies out now, enabling us to keep windows open

Is anyone else having a fly problem?

mardatha

I rarely even see flies up here kittie, one of the benefits of living high up. But I have seen a lot of midges around, think the mid winter is the cause.

tim_n

kittie wrote: »

We have had these for weeks now. They come out when it is warm, sunny and still. Our back garden is a suntrap and about 5 degrees hotter than the field above. These flies love congregating on any plastic or wood and there are hundreds. They are noisy and disappear around 3 pm. They are about half the size of a bluebottle and have a dark brown abdomen. Other than that I cannot pick any distinguishing features.

I am so so glad that we had fly mesh blinds fitted when we moved in, it was for wasps then but is keeping the flies out now, enabling us to keep windows open

Is anyone else having a fly problem?

Nope. Where abouts are you?

Close to landfills? Have an alley behind your garden filled with fly tipping or rubbish? Have you got an elderly neighbour you've not seen in a few weeks/months? Any animal burrows? Decking something might have died under? Fields with manure in? (sounds like dung flys to me)

Just thinking!

[Deleted User]

tim_n wrote: »

Nope. Where abouts are you?

Close to landfills? Have an alley behind your garden filled with fly tipping or rubbish? Have you got an elderly neighbour you've not seen in a few weeks/months? Any animal burrows? Decking something might have died under? Fields with manure in? (sounds like dung flys to me)

Just thinking!

Not as yellow as dung flies. I think they have stopped coming here, they were here when the sun was hot and crawled on anything plastic. None of the above, we have no immediate neighbour and are 3 m lower than the surrounding apple orchard, which also contains a few ewes and their lambs at the moment. No spraying and no muck spreading. The back garden is a sun trap and usually 5 degrees warmer than the weather station on the top fence which is on a level with the orchard. Anyway thanks for replying and I suppose it is all helping the eco system

londonlydia

Try this site:

http://www.tuin-thijs.com/vliegen,muggen-engels.htm

Spot your fly!

I bet you they have something to do with the orchard, i.e. those apple maggots do grow into something!