Hi! I'm new to the forums, and need help. I currently have 3 varieties of squash growing in my garden. The Zucchini is well established and produced many very large zuc's for me all through Summer etc. The Burgess Buttercup were just planted about a month ago and are growing like weeds :) I have them trellising a fence etc. Oh, I also have some sugar pie pumpkins growing in another part of the garden. They are growing fine too. I have been staving off PM as I always do every season and it's pretty much gone now that the weather is cooler. There isn't any over crowding and I water at the base of the plants as well. I also use a fish emollient/sea kelp tea once every 2 weeks to fertilize with. My plants are very healthy upon looking at them, but a new and strange type of teeny tiny fly is causing me concern.

When the blossoms on all three types of squash open up in the morning they look fine, then around 10 a.m. I start to see hundreds of these tiny flies huddled up inside the flowers all over the male of female parts where all the pollen resides. At first, I thought hey..nice I have my own little army of pollinators. Then, I began to notice the baby zuc's would not grow any more than 3 inches or so. If I did not pick them in time, they would just turn yellow (not at blossom end) and wither and fall off. With all the male and female flowers on all my plants...non of the female flowers are getting pollinated! Now, I am out in my garden every morning doing squash sex and still no results. Those tiny flies are in each and every open flower and my poor bees can't get inside and just fly off :(

I tried taking a picture of the bugs, but they are so small my camera can't zoom in enough without the picture being too blurry. I have researched online for hours on end and can't find a fly that resembles these at all. They are not aphids, and not fruit fly's. These look just like a mini fly, about the size of a few grains of sand maybe? There are hundreds of them in each flower..I can knock them off easy enough, but they fly right back in.

These plants are healthy. There is no blossom end rot, or vine borers. Just hundreds of these black mini fly's. My only summation is that they are eating all of the pollen, leaving not enough to pollinate my females, Even by hand :(

Has anyone ever heard of these before? I appreciate all your help.