So many flies in the garden

[notsochatty]

Advice please! We have swarms of small flies in our garden and it is driving me bonkers, we have had higher than average amount of flies for years but in particular this last week seems to be 10 times worse. I'm not sure how I get rid of them? Or even what type of fly they are.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing them and how to get them to leave?!

I currently have a fly bait/ trap set up at the end of the garden and sticky traps dotted around the garden catching them.

One of my neighbours has a pond, could it be that? Or could it be my turf, which was redone in 2020. We also have a manhole cover in our garden, and live right by fields... They seem to swarm over the grass section of the garden.

I've been round a neighbours before and she doesn't seem to have the same problem.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

We are getting my DD a rabbit for her birthday and I'm worrying this could be a recipe for disaster.

Here is a pic

It's the outdoors. That's where they live.

I have a similar issue. They love water so may be coming from there

Are they mosquitoes, they could be our around the pond, damp grass, warmth, anything dead in the garden that might attract flies.

I'm rubbish at judging scale, but if they're small could they be midges?

In which case, I would just leave them to it. They do like more damp conditions and come out May-time.

Birds and bats seem to love them, so their population will be under control in no time!

Are you anywhere near a sewage works?

It's normal, it's hatching time for them, plus as blacksax said, they live outside so that's where you'll find them. Saying that, it does seem to be a good year for gnats and other small flies. Probably the mild, damp weather.

You can try to ignore them but if you can't then you can always use a repellent. Smidge repels pretty well everything, even ants.

The Swallows are just arriving, saw our first ones today. They should hoover them up, it has been such a cold wet late spring they need all the food they can get.