What are these flies in stephanotis flower
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New to gardening! I planted 3 Stephanotis in my garden last year. One is doing extremely well and has tons of flower on it. This morning I noticed lots of small striped flies in the blooms. Does anyone know what the bug is and is it detrimental to the plant?
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Hi Evelieb welcome to the forum! Those tiny flies look exactly like fruit flies. I bet they fly kind of in a slow, hovering pattern, not really jumping all around. I think they’re attracted by the nectar? Maybe you have a source of them nearby like old fruit in a fruit bowl or fallen fruits somewhere. They won’t lay any eggs on your stephanotis so no need to worry about anything.
I was thinking the same thing – fruit flies! I’d say they’re just there for a rest. 😉 And yes they lay eggs in the fruits.
You’ve got beautiful flowers by the way!  😮
Oh I see! It didn’t occur to me that they could be fruit flies because there’s no fruit on the plant or anywhere at all in my yard for that matter. Also I thought fruit flies were much smaller. Thanks for your help!
Size matches that of fruit flies, about 1/8th inch, it’s already very small, anything smaller is either in the thrips, gnat or midge category. But fruit flies usually have reddish eyes, so I looked into it a bit and perhaps these small flies you have are phorids. Harmless, usually attracted to decaying debris, not necessarily fruits. Why they’re interested in your stephanotis flowers I have no idea… maybe they just stopped at the bar for a mug of nectar!
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