What are these flying things?

[n2mark]

I'm serious, I have these things on my computer screen every so often, they look like baby flies. Are they gnats? Fleas? My dogs are not itching and I am not either. They are irritating. I see them in my yard too.

How do you get rid of these annoying things? I've sprayed my house, no fruit in the open, and they don't seem to like my plants.

[Dookus]

1. baby faeries

or if you're underwater, sea monkeys.

[Blue-Jay]

2. crabs.

[david_vincent]

3. Please, fleas flee

Last night I said these words to my girl: fleas don't fly...

[progressoid]

4. Obviously the above posters are not taking this seriously

Clearly, it's a plague. It's Bush's fault.

Sorry, couldn't help it.

Actually, I've been seeing them here also. Look like gnats? We don't have pets anymore so...umm...I dunno, maybe global warming is helping the bug population??

[n2mark]

14. It is the secret service reading

my email.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

5. i have seen these "baby flies" too

over the last year in this house i have run into about 5 of them, they just are just hanging out in a spot that you happen to look at.

i have never really seen anything like them before and i don't know how they get in, they seem rather inactive to fly in when a door is open.

[Blue-Jay]

6. baby flies are maggots, right?

[SheepyMcSheepster]

7. yes, but i don't mean "baby" as in "small"

indeed flies come from maggots, but these things look like small little flies. but not small enough to be a nat or something else. a little fly.

[hatredisnotavalue]

8. I would say fruit flies n/t

[n2mark]

10. They are a little bigger,

don't think they are fruit flies and my fruit is in the fridge.

[hatredisnotavalue]

15. Aphids?

What part of the country are you in?

We have a real problem with ladybugs of all things. There are probably 100 living in the house. I like them so I let them live inside the house during the harsh winter.

[Speck Tater]

16. I looked up fruit flies and...

The criters I'm seeing in my house have different wing shape and different body shape and are at least 2 to 3 times larger than a fruit fly. I have honestly never seen a fly quite like them before. Maybe it's a new species, or maybe global warming has chased a tropical species up north to Orygun. But there's something definitely odd about these flies.

[Speck Tater]

9. Not a fruit fly...

At least the ones that have shown up in my house over the last 6 to 8 months are too big for fruit flies, and WAY too small for house flies. I've been puzzling over them for a long time now. I should grab a few of them and take them to the local university to see if anybody knows what the heck they are. I've never seen anything like them before.

[n2mark]

12. They are annoying

They must like liquid. Geez, I just found one floating in my ice tea.

[Richardo]

11. I can't see them from this side of the monitor...

:shrug:

[n2mark]

13. So come here and sit at my monitor.

It is is swat and swat here.

We had the same problem where I worked, those pesky little kept interrupting meetings.

[hatredisnotavalue]

17. I bet it is a gnat n/t

[Speck Tater]

18. Gnot even close to being a gnat

The closest description I've found so far is something called a "drain fly".