Flies in my grape vines...do-dah do-dah

[djrockinsteve]

Seriously though. I have had a large uprising of flies all over my grape vines (5) over the last few days. As if birds wern't enough and my fake snake is nappin'.

I thought about spraying them but I would kill the spiders that eat them and other good insects as well. Asked my wife any ideas. No response.

So I went to the depot last night and bought some sticky fly strips. I went down this morning and hung 2 of them under the arbor.

Then I noticed something really weird and I have never seen before. There were many flies at the tips of the grape leaves. All over the place. I went to flick them off and they didn't move. Awwww these guys are not havin' sex right here are they.

They were stuck. Both on top and underneath at the tips of the leaves. Some had even started to dry out.

Has anyone else seen this? It must be sticky on these leaves that they can't undo themselves. Is this nature's way of fly control? Really weird.

 

[DesertDance]

Same issue here. Tons of flies! We spray ours with Bayer Merit, top and bottom, and it doesn't affect the spiders at all! Spider's eat bugs, not leaves. As soon as we spray, the flies are gone. Mainly the Merit is for the dreaded glassy winged sharpshooter. Today we spray with BT for the invasive Gypsy Grape Moth, and the Grape leaf skeletonizer, AND the ugly tomato worm! We caught one of those worms eating an entire cane worth of leaves!!

I'm not sure why flies are sticking to your leaves... Cute joke about Jack and Jill!
Suzi

 

[djrockinsteve]

Yeah one small insect today, an army tomorrow. Kinda glad I only have 5 vines.

I picked some grapes yesterday. Some have a little longer to go, some are ripe now. There's a taate you won't get at your grocery store.

Thanks