Can pine bark chips attract flies?

I was planning to cover an area at the back of my garden with pine bark chippings. I was hoping this would be a good alternative to lawn. I used this product:

Deluxe Maritime Pine

Yesterday I started to lay the bark as seen as in the picture. It is very attractive to look at and smells lovely and piney. Today, I brought my BN chair up and sat in this part of the garden for the first time, and I noticed there are lots of little flies hovering in the area, and I wonder if they could have come from, or be attracted by the bark chippings.

The flies are not buzzing house flies, but wispy delicate flies that form circling columns high in the air. it's possible that the flies are just attracted by the big maple tree and other vegetation, and have always been there. I may have just noticed them because I took my chair up to that part of the garden.

The flies arent too bad, but if I thought the bark chippings were causing them, I would refrain from doing the rest of the area and lift up what I've already done.

Any thoughts?

 

Sounds like gnats to me.

 

But are the gnats coming from / attracted by the bark chips? Or should I just expect them to be in the garden at this time of year?

 

Well, I think you just get them sometimes, how many are there?
Often you get them circling in the evenings.

Never heard of bark chippings attracting them.

 

Hard to count them! They seem to be circling around the trees at the far end of the garden. Thankfully they are not on the patio or inside the house...

 

I think they are just celebrating the return of a proper summer's day with more to follow AND IT'S A BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND...
WOW....

 

Kon. This is perhaps one of the mysteries of nature. Carry on and lay your chippings.

 

We need an exact number count to tell you if the chippings are attracting the gnats or not!

Seriously tho, I think it's just a coincidence, @Kon.

Nick