My entire neighborhood suffers from pretty high level of gnats...little bit of mosquito and some annoying flies....all neighbors are pretty good and try to keep everything clean and dry but the soil is mostly clay and after a lot of rain you can see how it saturates with water ....overall it seems those flying insects just like the entire area..... In any case....I am now planning for major work around my property.... thinking about reducing overall lawn area for pavers, some hardscaping and then doing some landscaping (plants, small trees). My question - will the choices in any way help reduce the overall "desirability" of my property for the flying insects ? What I mean.... for example: would using mulch be better than river stones ? Are there certain plants I should avoid and in turn some that I should plant as they are not attractive to insects ? should I have lifehedge or fence ? I do use Talstar frequently which helps for some time...so I would like to know that I don't do anything to actually encourage them coming back onto my property by the choices I am about to make....if they make any difference at all.... Thank you!

Hi everyone, long time member but possibly my first time posting. I was wondering if anyone can identify the fly I have posted a picture of. They are small, at first I assumed they were fruit flies because of how small they were, but i'm not sure. I don't think they are drain flies because I have never seen any come out of any of our drains. To me they almost look like regular houseflies, only a lot smaller. The problem started awhile back but it was not many so we weren't too concerned about it. We just killed them when we could. The numbers have grown greatly so it appears they are breeding, and it seems when the weather recently got warmer the population really exploded quickly. When it first started they were hanging out mostly in the kitchen and bathroom but now they are in every room throughout the house. I have taken to vacuuming them up several times a day but no matter how many I vacuum, there are always more. We are trying to avoid calling in a pest control expert because it is an expense we don't need right now. I have no idea where they could possibly be breeding. I figured the first step was to identify what type of fly they really are and then if anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with the problem I would be eternally grateful! Thanks in advance. Just wanted to post some additional information on their behavior, which doesn't match what I have learned about fruit fly's in the research I have done. First, we almost NEVER have fruit in the house, and if we do it's in the refrigerator. The thing is they seem to hang out in areas where there is no food at all. Just chilling on the bedroom wall. I know they are eating something, but I never see them eating, and we make every effort not to leave stuff out for them to eat.