what type of bug, flying ant. black fly? Mutant gnat?

The pictue is in the middle of an inch and a 1/2 ring for size comparison.

This is a Picture of what looks like a flying ant -- It is aproximetely a 1/2 a mm long it has 3 sections to its body (like an ant body) is all black, but does not have the wing span of what i saw flying ants have.

I saw several of these not on my plants, but running around on the tiles under them and a few on the lip of my planters.

I dont know what they are. Its all black, smaller wings then pictures ive seen on google of flying ants. I dont think its a termite.

Please advise
Thsi is the best picture i can have right now it was taken aroudn midnight last night .. the plants so far dont seem to be hurt, yesterday was the first day i noticed them ..

When i say a few i mean only about 5 that are noticabel.

Thanks

its a fungus gnat. use sand as a mulch this way they cant lay their eggs and harm your plants.

thanks -- will do

if i put sand down over hte top of hte dirt can it hurt my plant -- (i guess less then the gnat will) -- what if they already laid eggs.

Again

THANKS!

i found a couple of those damn flys also... i havent been too alarmed. i think ive read that you can put a fly trap in your room and they well get caught. has anyone else heard of this or used it to control the flys.

Silicaceous sand won't hurt, but anything derived from calcareous sources may change your pH. Think coral, dolomite, aragonite, marble sand, and so on. Play sand would be the ticket for you here.

How's flypaper gonna help under your planters? I found ONE recently . . . fingertip, squish! May have resulted (in my case) from using molasses? Thus the underneath thing? Makes it easy to kill them personally.
Lifespan 5 days. To check for soil infestation, place slice(s) of potato ON the soil. If they are in your soil, they will infest the potato. Just lift it and look after a few hours. IF found, keep refreshing slice(s) until they come up clean.
The sand seems to work, per this forum.
I use diatomacious earth. A little on the surface will kill just about anything that touches it AND you can eat DE. In fact, it's used to worm animals and some people, I suppose.
Seek "food grade DE" not industrial, that's used in filtering.

my plants will need water today -- do i water first --- (if i dont they will wilt -- its up to 96 tommorow and ouch if they are not waterd -- its theyre normal day ontop of that.)

i had seen 1 of those a while back in my grow room so i just hung up 4 fly traps and got his ass the next day, just put like lime or something down around the plants and the critters that cant fly wont usually pass that

yeah, I'd water and drain before putting anything on your soil, IF it's watering time. If not, I sure wouldn't.

well 2 c how many u have cut a slice of raw potato n leave it in there n after a while ull c them on it n ull get a pretty good idea on how many r there
n then let it dry out a lil bit n pour 1 part hydrogen peroxide 3% mixed with 3 parts of water and just wet the soil with it n it shuld kill all the larvae it layed..n if there r still flies around jus put the sand like they said or sum plastic wrap around the top so they cant land on ur soil n lay eggs it wont harm ur bud jus put it on the soil

the sand worked -- thanks

the 105 degrees i hit in this heatwave also may have contributed lol...


but thanks for hte sand tip... and recognizing what it is.

I am in the progress of buildign anew cab -- so will eb doigna thorough re-cleanign of hte area in the next month.

I found a bunch of those bastards in my grow room pretty recently, also. They like to chill on the underside of my smaller plants. I just got some "Multi-Insect Killer" and diluted it into a small spray bottle. I just sprayed a light mist on the plants and on them and haven't seen them since.