Do you have these flies?

Question

They fly around right in the middle of my patio. They don't land on me or food. All they do is go around in circles. I have tried sprays, citronella, zappers and just swatting at them. Nothing works and they drive me nuts. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

yep...they are like baby flies but not..for me the are in just one specific area in my garage and on my patio they hover about 3' off the ground bugs the &*^% out of me. I cant seem to get rid of them either,this will be interesting what others say.

Answer 2

Try getting one of those sticky yellow traps and placing it where they fly. Once you have a few you can ID them.

They are probably performing a mating swarm flight. Dance flies are predaceous insects which often form male mating swarms. In Rhamphomyia marginata, females gather to swarm. Very often identical swarm sites are used each evening over for several years.
Perhaps once you know the specific fly you can find what is making this spot so ideal for them to use as their swarm site. Flies use swarm markers to orient towards. That is they fly in a fixed pattern by a specific object, the swarm marker. Depending on the fly specie the marker can be a tree or an object on the ground. Horizontal pale objects on the ground can be markers. It can be time of day, temperature specific, even at a specific height above ground but there is something.
Try to disperse them from different directions. They will return to their former orientation. This may give you an idea of what the object is so you can change it, so make it less attractive.