AusBonsai

Hi guys,

Just chasing confirmation that these are Syrphids? They are a flying/hovering insect with similar markings to a wasp or bee but no stinger. Body is long and flat, about 1cm in length with large eyes.





They seem to be taking over my Bonsai shelf, but not causing any damage. If I have identified them correctly, it appears from Google that they feed on alphides etc.

Can anyone confirm for me if they are a pest or positive for my trees?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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Hover flies. Quite harmless. Some are predatory.

G'day Pearcy

Yep they look like Hoverflies to me, these are good guys that eat aphids, look for the white carcasses of aphids

Scaddo

How you got them to sit still for the photos is beyond me Here they are always on the move and next to impossible to take a photo.
I'm always pleased to see them and there are more here than usual this year. A couple of trees in the garden are just swarming with them.

Thanks for the post I thought they were a pest and killed them....


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I thought it was just my garden they were in - it's like a plague in my yard.

The more the merrier Pearcy.
Not bad at chomping on red leg mites either.
Steve.

I have an especially large crop of them this year. Literally arrived this weekend good to know they are the good guys.
Been chasing Native Paper Wasps from nesting under the eves. They keep ignoring the hose
Cheers
Kirky

I thought they were pests as well, last year sprayed them back again this year, and at a new location. They seem to favour Kunzea, don't really see them on any of the other trees.

Thanks for the replies all.

They are in the masses at the moment. Only reason I didn't 'crush kill destroy!' was the fact my trees didn't seem to be affected even with the amount of them.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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Got some photos of one chilling on my Euc this arvo;

Nice photos Ben! I see you used something better than a mobile phone with a shoddy zoom.

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Thanks pearcy believe it or not these were actually with a phone, just using a clip on macro lens!

The hover flies are still out if force at my place.



A tun of them seem to have does off. Two weekends ago around 1000+ died suddenly for no reason. They were even nice enough to do it under my pergola... on top of the outdoor setting... and throughout all my shoes.....

I attempted to clean them up after a couple hundred dropped dead, but two hours after each clean up there was another 250 odd dead ones right where I had just cleaned!

All the dead flies then attracted all the birds, who then decided to dedicate all over my outdoor setting after eating too many dead hoverflies!

I have now been removing and dead hoverflies from my pots after a couple of cuttings have flown out of the pot they were in. I can only suspect the birds are going for the flies and pulling out the trees with them.

Luckily the death toll has cut back severely, although I now place my shoes upside down when I take them off.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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Syrphids or hoverflies are in the fly Order called "Diptera". Diptera comes from the word "Ptera" meaning wing with the prefix "Di" meaning two. All species in the order Diptera have two wings where as most insects and all species that look similar to Syrphids such as wasps have four.

And as many have stated above, they are very good for eliminating pest insects from your garden. One common method for encouraging them to your garden includes planting things in the Apiaceae family. Many members are useful in a herb garden such as Celery, Parsley, Carrot etc.

Cool find!