Many strange flies on Strawberries - Ask Extension
Last year I had these strange flies on my strawberries. Never seen anything like them before. There were thousands of them, and they did show up occa...
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Many strange flies on Strawberries #570055
Asked June 13, 2019, 2:46 PM EDT
Last year I had these strange flies on my strawberries. Never seen anything like them before. There were thousands of them, and they did show up occasional around my green beans, but mostly they hung out on the strawberry leaves. ! I thought they might be Spotted Wing Drosophilia (SWD), but they are all larger than 1/4 inch - I'd say 1/3 inch is about right, and the description of the SWD says they are smaller. Also they showed up when the plants were just starting to flower, so there was no ripe fruit to attract them. You might also want to know that there's no rotting vegetation or chronic moistness above the ground that would attract flies. It's a clean patch. I confess to using chemicals on them, which did kill quite a few. But it certainly didn't kill all of them. Despite this, they didn't seem to really affect my berries. No signs of mushy fruit as described with the SWD. I also have a big patch of raspberries nearby and they didn't touch that patch. They are starting to show up again, and I want to know whether they are a problem or not, or just a nuisance (the nuisance would be just that there are SO MANY), because I'd rather not use chemical controls if I can avoid it. Can you ID from this photo and let me know what the deal is? Let me know if you need a different photo. I took a lot, but this was the only really good one. Still, I could try again. Thank you! Kathy
Ramsey County Minnesota
Expert Response
Hello,
While it would be nice to know what kind of fly it is so you can assess the threat, it's difficult to determine using the best bug finder site I'm aware of. Here is a link to the site: https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-search-results.asp?display=form&Color1=Black&Col...
It's actually the resulting page I got when entering some characteristics of the fly I see in you r photo; and, as you can see, nothing on that page matches to your fly.
Here's what I will say . . . your strawberries didn't suffer from their presence last year and I understand they are a nuisance but I think it's best to leave them be and not use any pesticide on them; because if you go the pesticide route, you need to read the label to figure out the last date to use it in order to have a safe harvest.
Have you explored the possibility of getting a mosquito net shirt? If you wear a hat under it, it keeps the net off your face and therefore no bugs fly into your eyes when you've got lethal garden tools in your hand. Yes, I've hit myself defending against gnats not a pretty sight.
I hope this helps.
