Flies!?!?!

[Jason]

Just checked on two of my girls and there are three flies buzzing around in there. They have a kind of metallic shiney back, not just a black house fly. Should that be a concern?
I doubt they eat much, but would like an experienced opinion.
I put up some ancient sticky paper so we'll see if they go for it. Good air movement so it swings.

[alltatup]

What size are they? Can you get a picture?

[Jason]

Smalish fly size. No way to picture as they fly way too fast and its breezy in there.
Not deer or horse flies and not fruit flies. We don't really have flies around here.,
And my space is basement space. Not a lot of live stock around.
The sticky strips seem useless.

[alltatup]

Jason Are there any tiny holes or brown spots on leaves (like they've been chomped on)? I ask because I got some aphids on my current grow, and when I read up on them, I discovered that there are some that become tiny black flies. I also had gnats recently and I knew these weren't gnats which are so much slower, and these black flies were fast.

So I sprayed thoroughly with spinosad, and I'm about to apply second foliar spray today. Read about aphids on GWE if you see any of those leaf signs.

[RubySlippers]

Can you find a picture of a similar fly on google? Any visual would help.

[Jason]

No time for that sorry. I think I'll get my shop vac and just inhale them.
Turn the fans off, rustle the girls to get them airborne and adios.
I just don't kill things, no matter how small, unless I have to.
I don't kill ants in my garden as they are "garden neutral" here.
I was just hoping somebody would tell me they are good, bad, neutral.
If you need to see them to characterize, the thought occurs, what are the "bad" flies?
Is there such a thing?

[Newf]

Fungus gnats are small (very small) flies whose larvae live in your soil and kill roots. There are lots of pics of these on GWE to compare. They could be fruit flies but they only tend to hang around if there is ripe fruit or compost. Less of a problem usually. I don't think most other types of flies are much to be concerned about.

[Minoo96]

Bad flies affect your grow experience, by disturbing your plants (eating leaves or laying eggs in the soil that'll disturb the roots). Good flies, they mind their own business without troubling your weed
So like others said, Fungus gnats and such.
Personally, I grow outdoor, I raised some mosquito net around my plants. I started noticing male mosquitoes and flies INSIDE the mosquito net. They actually had laid eggs in the soil before I raised the net, and now only were coming out (perhaps the previous summer/autumn eggs were deposited)
I freaked out a bit, tensed days/weeks, checking my plants everyday for signs of damage. Nothing They all died off, of starvation. Eventually nothing came out of the ground anymore (As much as I don't like killing, I cannot take every fly off the mosquito net, everyday... Stupid insect doesnt want to leave the net when I open it, I can't help it more than that. Evolution, natural selection.)

So I advise to observe your plants carefully over the days, and you should know if you need to do something or not. Or you could do as planned, clean everything and bubye.

[Jason]

Thank you folks for those insights. I don't think I have what you're describing. I grow hydro, so soil is not an issue. These are not household black flies and not really any smaller. Sort of metallic. See attached. They fly very fast. I don't see any spots, eggs or anything yet, but will keep an eye out. The shop vac is close by if extermination is the way to go.

[alltatup]

They look like houseflies to me

[Jason]

Problem solved. Just checked on the girls when their light came on. Flies are gone. So whatever they were, the grass is greener somewhere else for them.

[Jason]

Well, two returned. One got stuck no the glue strip. I think the like the light. They look pretty close the picture I got from google images.
Thank you again for the descriptions of harmful flies. These guys looks pretty harmless at the moment.

[Aloner]

These guys looks pretty harmless at the moment.

Especially the one on the glue strip, I reckon.

[Minoo96]

Aloner, LOL

[D.A.A.S.69]

I live down south and we call those blow flies, you can tell by their junebug color, they are everywhere in the south. They mostly get around rotten meat, nasty stuff ,I ain't saying that's you Jason, so please don't get mad ,just saying there's plenty of them in Dixie. What part of the country do you live in?

[alltatup]

Jason, get those hamburgers out of the grow room!!!!! ;-}

[PRIMO]

Sounds like barnyard shit flies, annoying little bastards. Man up, get a fly swatter& Kill em.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Look up blow flies on Google you will see em , they ain't gonna hurt nothin ,they lay eggs in rotten meat ,an stuff, if you keep seeing them you might want to check your water, it might be getting stagnate it's so hot where I live. Hope that helps some Jason , like Primo says get a fly swatter ,everyone that lives in the south has a fly swatter in every room damn near .

[Jason]

Yes, I'm a Southerner. Now that you mention it, I remember them from hunting days and my grandfather's farm. But never around the house.
I have a very effective copper fly swatter. More for decoration, but it is most effective.
We've had some resident deer moving among the neighbors, mommy and 3 babies around for some weeks. And I have a ratter of a senior male cat that keeps vermin totally extinguished. So those might be
influences. There are two or three piles of deer poo in the back yard. I'll look to see if TomTom left any of his dead friends out there. Not the type of fly we're used to seeing. I also found three upstairs. Had to clean the fly swatter.
They way they fly around the plant in the breeze makes it very hard to swat them. They only land on the plant , and I'm not swatting that.
Shop vacs also work.

Thanks for the insights folks.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Good deal. Put some old or bloody hamburger meat in a plate ,they will be there when you come back later to check, then maybe you can get a good swat on them .

[Jason]

I showed the dead one to my wife. "That's a dang blow fly, dumb ass. Where'd you get that!"
I notice a funny smell and found a dead snake our ultimate hunter cat, TomTom had taken down there. Very small, no larvae. We've had doors and windows open as the weather has been so nice.
So you put all that together and presto, three blow flies in the basement.
TomTom is half Norwegian Forest cat. They are arboreal wild cats in Norway that almost went extinct, were made the national cat and saved. Exported in the '70s I think. He was 18 lbs at 18 months with a nose wider than my thumb. Small terrestrial creatures have no chance. Rats are a favorite. Which we get occasionally due to a facility close by.