Fly flustering

[eluneth]

Hi gardeners - I'm an urban gardener in New England. It's possible I'm just fussing, but I feel like have yet to see any syrphid flies (hoverflies, flower flies) this year, whereas by this time last year (I think!) they were crowding my sweet alyssum and such as soon as the sun was up

Comments

[rhodielady_47]

I've seen far fewer of them this year too and I'm in Indiana.
:^}

[eluneth]

Thank you very much for sharing! This makes me sad for the syrphids, but less concerned about my sanity. I know they have several generations per year, so I hope more will hatch soon.

[rhodielady_47]

I think I may be able to shed a little light on the situation.
We had a series of extremely late frosts, freezes, and even snows just as everything was waking up this spring. I think this cut way down on the numbers of tiny winged flyers this spring as well as decimating our peach crop.
Did you have any abnormally late cold snaps this spring?
:^}

[eluneth]

We did have a late cold snap, which I'd wondered about - but it was much the same here last year, without a noticeable impact on the syrphids. (Our apple crops were much like your peaches, though.) Maybe two cold-snap springs in a row was too much for them...

[eanja]

I have just a few days ago started seeing a bunch of them, so maybe you'll get a late recurrence of them as well (I'm in the Boston area). I've also been seeing far less bees the last couple of years than usual as well. It's quite worrying, overall. I feel like 5 or 10 years ago, my flowers ere swarming with pollinators, and now I get excited when I see just a few.

I wonder if mosquito spraying is killing them incidentally, or if it's just a whole conjunction of stressors adding up.

[eluneth]

Thank you for sharing! I have started seeing this week the middle-sized ones (I like watching them crawl over flowers methodically - they make me think of little lawnmowers), but still none of the tiny guys - hoping they'll pop out soon.

My bet is on "whole conjunction of stressors" - I can't imagine climate changes, pesticides, etc. not all having an impact. Sigh.