What are these tiny flying, sort of floaty bugs in my living room?

November 5, 2019 3:47 PM

What can they be? In the last couple of months I've been noticing tiny flying bugs in my living room. They're a little floaty rather than flying more directly, like flies or something. They don't bite, but they seem attracted to me. I don't see groups of them sitting on furniture or other surfaces.

I'm in New England, so the weather getting cooler may have something to do with their fairly recent appearance, but I've never noticed this in previous years. They make me crazy! I constantly feel them in my hair or on my neck or face, so I'm constantly flapping and slapping them away. They seem kind of like fruit flies, but they're in the living room, not the kitchen. No food in here!

posted by primate moon to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

Best answer: Do you have house plants? Possibly fungus gnats.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 3:54 PM on November 5, 2019

Response by poster: That's it, Waiting for Pierce! A few weeks ago I took in several plants from a friend to care for while they're away. My existing plants never had this issue. It must be theirs. Reading all about how to treat. Thanks!
posted by primate moon at 4:20 PM on November 5, 2019

So now you can say you know kung-fu :)
posted by baegucb at 4:43 PM on November 5, 2019

You can use diatomaceous earth sprinkled on the surface of your plants or you can use a houseplant systemic.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 4:45 PM on November 5, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. Now if I can only keep from going mad before I can lay in the supplies needed to wipe them out!
posted by primate moon at 5:15 PM on November 5, 2019

They don’t really hurt the plants, and they will keep your house spiders happy. One way to decrease their numbers is to let the plants fully dry out, and give them minimal water through the winter.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:18 PM on November 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

I seem to get fungus gnats every time I re-pot plants in new soil. To control them, I put sand on top of the dirt (I got dark sand, so it looked nicer), let the pots dry out pretty well between waterings, and added Gnatrol when I did water. All of these things make it harder for them to breed, so they aren't an instant solution, but the gnats died out as expected.
posted by kite at 10:16 AM on November 6, 2019