What are these flies?

Does anyone know what these flies are? They are all over my raised veg patch. Whats attracting them, and will they cause any problems? Lots of mating going on, so dont want eggs or lavae causing trouble down the line.

 

I think they're May flies Newbie Green. If they are they are real pests. They turn up in May and lay millions of carerpillars - big grey things. The caterpillars totally skeletelise the plants they feed on.

Maybe you don't like to spray anything but in the case of May flies it's the only answer I know.
Maybe somebody else has a different idea.

Sorry I don't know their real name. I don't know what's attracting them to your veg bed but they love polygonatum (Solomon's seal)

 

I'm confused now because i cant find any mayflies that look like my pests. Here as a an example
http://www.uksafari.com/mayfly.htm

 

No they're not that kind of mayflies Newbiegreen. As I said I don't know their real name but call them May flies because they turn up in May. If you get the grey caterpillars you'll know it's them for sure.

 

Hi Newbie,could be "sweat flies" so called because if you stay around were they are they will be attracted to sweat and constantly annoy you Hydrotaea irritans is the very apt latin name, definitely not May flies and flies have maggots or larva not caterpillars.

 

I think Sawflies might be the flies I was thinking of Newbiegreen.

They have larvea which look like catterpillars.

This link might help you. Have you still got them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawfly

 

Thanks alice, i dont think it looks like those.

The flies at least dont seem to be around tonight, not sure about eggs ofcourse.

 

If it's not them Newbiegreen I'm happy for you. They used to turn up in my last garden every year in May and those catterpillar like larvae totally skeletalised everything they were on. Polygonatums were what they liked best.

Maybe they're just flies, flies.
One year we had a big outbreak of flies - a real plague. I checked round for anything that could be the source - a dead bird, rat, mouse, anything, but found nothing. Fortunately the experience wasn't repeated.