Help identifying this pest

Hi all!

I’m trying to tackle a fly that been swarming around our drain for the past couple of years. It’s not a drain fly though and I’m struggling to confirm it’s identification and how to tackle it.

Last year in the spring and summer months these would appear outside my back door in a small swarm usually around the drainpipe running from my house guttering vertically into the ground. The swarms would be at all heights. They have just begun to reappear and I was hoping to indentify the insect in question and the source of them to eliminate them from my garden. If it helps I live in the NW England. These have been a problem before I started doing anything with the garden, so there’s no plants, greenhouses or pots that they have come from and they are solely outside unless I leave the door open.

Coincidentally nearby there are two yellowed/brown patches in the lawn but I can’t see anything in them. The drains had also been cleaned and flushed out last year, but these doesn’t seem to have made any difference. my guess is that they may be fungus gnats? Anyone have any knowledge or experiences with this please.

Thanks in advance!

 

Mosquitos

Do you have any standing water nearby?

 

Not sure why the responses aren’t showing now, but no, there’s no standing water anywhere :(

 

I don't see any reference to size. They do look like mosquitoes but if they are bigger, could be chadflies which lay grubs in your lawn.

If they didn't try to suck your blood then they are not mosquitoes...

 

Hmm, you must be new here! Replies are all volunteered by helpful members, when they are able. This is a gardening forum and though we try very hard to answer questions about insects that destroy plants, you haven't really said much about their size or if you checked for grubs in the damaged area of lawn or

It the damaged lawn area is round, it could be grubs. But I don't think I've seen chadflies keep in swarms and stick in one area as they tend to do over here.

I don't understand the "no water" bit when talking about drains. Are they for seasonal run off?

Failing that, if you need help immediately, you might want to contact your local pest control contactor

 

I can see now that I actually replied to the person directly, and not here which is why those messages aren’t showing.

I can’t find much in Chad flies, and no idea what they are unfortunately , I’m pretty sure they aren’t mosquitoes either

I appreciate any help that can be provided, I understand it’s a gardening forum and wondered if anyone else had a similar experience.

I’ve tried some hydrogen peroxide mixed with water on the two patches in the soil, and added some bacterial drain cleaner for the drains so hopefully they may have an impact!

The drains we have here are for rain which unfortunately isn’t seasonal! But they are structured in a way that they are angled slightly so they don’t hold standing water - hope that makes sense!

 

Dixidae - Wikipedia ??


Welcome to the forum by the way @Cardia

 

I know it says 'fresh water' but a drain might do .

 

Thanks for the reply, but I don't think that's it.

I've seen less recently so I'm hoping the hydrogen peroxide and the drain cleaner we used have done something.... Will keep my fingers crossed!

I'm pretty sure they are fungus gnats, just don't understand why they like the drain

 

Sorry for the misdirection. I thought they were big bugs in the pictures, about an inch long. We all know fungus gnats are teeny. And a nuisance! Glad to hear you've got things under control.