What are these flies??

[fliesdrivingmecrazy]

As above, what type of flies are these?? We have had them for about two weeks now and cannot find the source. They are driving us crazy. We had them a couple of months back and then we thought they had gone away but they are back now. Put up this fly strip on Friday evening and there's over 50 on it now. They don't fly fast, usually you can clap them but it's she sheer number of them with seemingly no source that confusing us.

Places we have checked:
Food waste bin, emptied daily
Fridge
Oven
No food left in any rooms
Food cupboards
Flowers in vases emptied and thrown away

We are about to pour drain blocker down the drains tonight, but they appear clean.

Any advice please?? Thank you,

I'd say fruit flies although the photo makes them look a bit dark. Is there a rotting banana in a bag somewhere? I once had this issue and it turned out to be manky bananas in DS's sports bag.

Cluster flies? I have these hiding in my attic. Periodically they appear in my bathroom (where the loft hatch is). Drunk little fuckers.

Do you have houseplants? Although those flies look a little large for that, but could be..

I have fungus gnats. They are breeding and hatching in the pot plants I was given.

Hust when you think they’ve all gone away. They are back.

I’ve plugged in some electric UV fly traps and they work really well.

Only saw one yesterday. Result.

A previous MN post said to get mosquito bites on Amazon or eBay to kill them. That will be my next port of call if they remain!

Possibly fungus gnats. I am currently waging a war on them in my office and they are absolute buggers. Do you have houseplants? If so, thats where they are coming from.
This week I plan to repot the enormous peace lily in the office and treat with hydrogen peroxide and some kind of top dressing whose long name I cant remember to see if that does it. After that will work through all the other plants.
A top dressing of cinnamon helps too

We have these too. Thousands of them last summer. I think they are drain flies. But drain unblocker did nothing. They seem to be more around sinks but by summer they are everywhere.

They're fungus gnats and will be living in any pot plants. You need Nemasys nematodes - look on Amazon. You the water your plants with that solution and the microscopic nematodes feast on the gnat larvae in the soil.

I've just googled since I posted (I hate flies!) and agree they look more like fungus gnats!

Nematodes saved me! nemasys on Amazon. They're all gone from every plant and I was infested!

Yes i think the fungus gnats seems very like them. Ok off to Amazon I go!

I have one spider plant in my bathroom but it's been there for years, we've only had these flies since Jan maybe??

I got a potted plant for Mother's Day but I think these were there before then?

I got given a bunch of flowers back in Feb for Valentine's Day, could it have been them or does it have to be soil?

Thank you all for your help

They look like fungus gnats to me. Water your houseplants with a couple of drips of washing-up liquid in the water, and that will see them off.

We've had plants in the office for years( all from the same original peace lily) but only got an infestation this winter. It's so annoying! Dont have them at home so far...touch wood

I've seen these in the last couple of weeks, but I thought numbers were high with five killed. They look the same as the sort we have here, and yes slow moving.

I thought they originated in the upstairs bathroom as there's an exposed area leading to under the floorboards and possibly attic. We only have two tiny house plants in the hallway (I'm not good with them) a poinsettia and a kalanchoe plant. Though we usually have three vases of flowers at any one time.

Nematodes are those coiled worm creatures? 🤢

I was considering indorex room by room (we have some unused) but I don't know if that's extreme, and I don't want to kill any spiders.

I have these little shits floating round the last few weeks ! I only have one peace lily and an orchid though... I rekon it's the lily as had it years and i remember these last year.

They do seem to like peace lilies. The gloves are off this week. I'm fighting dirty with every weapon at my disposal. The office peace lilies - all 10 of them - are part of the team! We leave no plant behind!

Have a dig around and lift the pot out, you'll see them crawling around it.

Have a search and there is a thread I'm on where someone recommended Nematodes to me within the last month or so and it has worked!

No idea what they look like but haven't seen any grim works on my plants!

*worms!

Sciarid Fly Killer Nematodes 15 sqm amzn.eu/d/5bgB4Be

It's so strange that others have noticed an influx of them around this time too. I'll order those off Amazon and hopefully that'll be the end of them!🤞🏻

Ugh. I tackled the biggest of the plants today and there were loads of wee squirmy things in the soil and in the dish beneath the plantpot. Dumped it all,disinfected the pots with hydrogen peroxide and repotted with fresh compost and a dusting of diathingy earth on top.Split the plants so
I now have 2 more new plants and about another 8 to tackle!

Little squirmy, thin larvae!

Definitely do the nematode thing as I repotted (and disinfected) three Swiss cheese pants: reinfected within a couple of weeks. I hosed all the roots and plunged it all into water to start again. So annoying.

The only thing that has worked is doing the whole lot in one go. I'm sure I'll have to do it again at some point but it's at least stopped my obsession.

I've ordered the nematodes so hopefully I'll get on top of this.