Grow Your Own Magazine

When i have checked some French beans i have in my greenhouse they seem to have loads of smallish (not small like green fly though) redish flies all over. They are the same sort that we have around our compost bin. They aren't constantly attached - they flew around when i knocked the plants but i'm not sure if they are going to do harm. Does anyone know what they might be, if they will do harm and any tips on what i can do?

Hi

Dont know what they are, but if they are a pest you could get one of those sticky fly traps, a sticky piece of paper that you hang up. Quite cheap and no chemicals.

Tigerella

Sounds like compost gnats (scariad flies, I think they're called). The flies themselves do no harm, but they lay their eggs in the compost and the larvae eat the roots of your plants.