I believe I have identified this as a sawfly. If it’s not, please let me know what it is.
We have a few of these in the house at any given time. About 1/2” long, slow moving, basically keep to themselves.
How do I get rid of them or discourage them from reappearing? We have a ton of house plants, but no larvae or damage on them that I can tell. So I don’t know where they’re getting in or coming from.
Looks like what we call soldier flies. They breed in organic material such as compost bins, and they like moist environments. If you have a compost bin (including worm composting), it may need to be moved farther away from the house. If you don't have a compost bin, there must be something else that is attracting them. Where do you notice them most frequently (which rooms)? Houseplants are not likely to be the source.
Do you find anything that looks like this in the house? This is the soldier fly larvae.
The soldier fly looks similar (at least what I saw on google) except what we have has longer antennae and they’re very long and thin between the thorax and abdomen, almost wasp-like.
They’ve been spotted in every room, which isn’t that impressive, the house is about 900sf and we always have all the doors between rooms open.
No unidentified larvae in or around and no compost in or near the house. No vegetation touching the house either.
There’s been 2-3 in here always since maybe October. One gets smacked dead and a little clone fills in almost immediately.
Looks as if sawflies to feed on plants and reproduce in the soil or on bark, so the houseplants may be the source for them.
I used to have a gnat issue when I would bring my houseplants in for the winter. Gnats lay their eggs in / on the moist soil. I started putting about 1" of aquarium gravel on top of the potting soil before bringing them in for the season and that took care of the issue. Aquarium gravel is pretty cheap, and you can get black or natural colors that won't look out of place or stand out. Try removing the top inch of soil and covering it with gravel and see if that helps.
I think Mojo is spot on. As soon as I saw it I thought stratiomied fly. A soldier fly.
The body shape is different on the soldier fly than what I’ve got. I’ll try to grab another picture today when I inevitably see one
After a little googling, the antennae are too short to be a soldier fly. It does resemble a sawfly, but there are quite a few species.
I thought my mentioning them had scared them away because they've been gone for a week, but one is back now.
You'll need to log in to post.
