Jun 2, 2011 – Flies For Everyone
QUESTION:
We received a call about thousands of flies in a yard. When I got to the customer's house I found that the yard was clean and the flies were in the grass. I think they are house flies. I couldn't get one to ID it. No dogs and no cats. Could you help me with this?
ANSWER:
Given the large numbers and the fact they are concentrated in the lawn seems to hint that they may be March flies in the family Bibionidae, also called "love bugs" when they are so often found with male and female attached and mating. This is the time of year for these insects to emerge in their huge numbers, and some news stories from the Southeast already have highlighted them and their terrible nuisance value. Sometimes highways get slick from millions of mashed march flies and the bumpers and windshields of cars get solid layers of their dead little bodies, so they can be a little more than just a nuisance.
The larvae feed primarily on decaying plant materials but females often lay their eggs in the soil of turf, and the larvae then feed on thatch buildup as well as on the roots of the grass. In many species the adult flies don't even feed, so they spend pretty much their entire adult life with the various activities of mating and egg laying and then dying within a few days. As one resource on them puts it the males and females attach and remain that way, even in flight, but of course they separate once the female feels the need to start depositing eggs.
Generally these are nuisance only, but if you feel their numbers are so high that some turf damage could occur then treating the turf to kill the adults now will prevent all those eggs from being left in the soil there.
If these turn out not to be march flies then it would be important to gather some and get the positive ID. March flies are shiny black or black with a red thorax, and are about the same length as house flies but much narrower.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
We received a call about thousands of flies in a yard. When I got to the customer's house I found that the yard was clean and the flies were in the grass. I think they are house flies. I couldn't get one to ID it. No dogs and no cats. Could you help me with this?
ANSWER:
Given the large numbers and the fact they are concentrated in the lawn seems to hint that they may be March flies in the family Bibionidae, also called "love bugs" when they are so often found with male and female attached and mating. This is the time of year for these insects to emerge in their huge numbers, and some news stories from the Southeast already have highlighted them and their terrible nuisance value. Sometimes highways get slick from millions of mashed march flies and the bumpers and windshields of cars get solid layers of their dead little bodies, so they can be a little more than just a nuisance.
The larvae feed primarily on decaying plant materials but females often lay their eggs in the soil of turf, and the larvae then feed on thatch buildup as well as on the roots of the grass. In many species the adult flies don't even feed, so they spend pretty much their entire adult life with the various activities of mating and egg laying and then dying within a few days. As one resource on them puts it the males and females attach and remain that way, even in flight, but of course they separate once the female feels the need to start depositing eggs.
Generally these are nuisance only, but if you feel their numbers are so high that some turf damage could occur then treating the turf to kill the adults now will prevent all those eggs from being left in the soil there.
If these turn out not to be march flies then it would be important to gather some and get the positive ID. March flies are shiny black or black with a red thorax, and are about the same length as house flies but much narrower.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
