Fruit fly swarms

[Frisk]

I know this is going to sound like a total first world problem type of thread but has anyone else noticed the huge amount of fruit flies in the air in Kelowna recently? Past few days that I've gone biking I come back & my hair and clothes are completely covered in them. Not to mention getting them in my eyes & mouth. Regardless of where I go they seem to be everywhere. What's going on?

[grumpies daughter]

I was just going to post about this also! They are everywhere today, Kelowna, and West Kelowna. Some establishments closed their patio seating this afternoon because of these pests!

[rustled]

We've had swarming the last two days in the south, too. Not sure they're fruit flies, maybe something a little bigger? I wondered if they've been driven down into the valley by the smoke.

[ferri]

They're bad down here too. Maybe the smoke is getting on their nerves?

[Green-light]

From Revelstoke, through the upper Arrow region, all through Cherryville, Lumby and Lavy right into Kalogna yesterday, there were tiny flies.
I thought they were gnats.
Ferry Loader at Galena stated he's been swarmed by them for days now.
Nobody kept their windows down.

[dirtguy]

was in clearwater this weekend, also had millions of them

[JayByrd]

I noticed them at my son's school this morning. I speculated they'd been down in the grass and were disturbed by all the activity. Out for a walk in Rutland this afternoon and was swarmed there too.Little flies, not much bigger than fruit flies, but definitely faster. Didn't seem to want to land on me or bite, just flying around.

[RustyCrayon]

They're all over Lake Country too. Took the dog for a walk this morning and was covered in them by the time I got home.
If you try to brush them off...you just end up smearing/squishing them.

The wasps are bad right now as well.

[ferri]

:( Three days ago the hummingbirds packed their little tiny suitcases and left too.

I wonder if these little flies are normally up higher but because of the smoke come down to bother us?

[Bpeep]

Look like gnats to me.

[LTD]

are gnats the same as noseeums I'm sure those biting little basturds were trying to eat me yesterday

[ferri]

I don't think they're the same, but one bit me yesterday too!

[Bpeep]

No not the same.
A noseeum is the size of a sty on the eye of a flea on the thigh of a nit on the neck of a gnat. A gnat is the size of a gnat.

[Urban Cowboy]

They seem to be everywhere, but what I have noticed, is that they are drawn more to people or patio furniture that is yellow or orange.

I was wearing a white shirt and had average annoyance, whereas a fellow worker wearing an orange shirt, was just covered in the things nonstop.

[JayByrd]

I wonder if the extended hot, dry weather we've had has created a bumper crop of these bugs. Maybe not impacting them directly, but say, something that normally eats these critters has largely died off because of the weather...so the little bug(ers) have free reign.