Strange yellow fly after using chocolate mulch

16 years ago

Recently, we purchased some chocolate mulch on a patch of yard to try it out. I vaguely remember that they may be dangerous to dogs, since we have no pets this was not an issue.

The lady warn us that some customers complain about rodents. This did not happen, but instead a swarm of yellow fly started appearing. At first I thought they were ground bees, but on a closer look I realized they look more like some sort of fly with a bee's slender body. Did these guys come with the mulch or is there some reason they are attracted to chocolate mulch?

I google around and thought they may be fungus gnats, but fungus flies are black.

Paul

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Comments (4)

Elly_NJ
16 years ago
Chocolate is highly toxic to birds. Just so you know.
paulsiu
Original Author
16 years ago
I got rid of the chocolate mulch. The trouble with it is that it get moldy really quickly. I feel that it really should not be used except in really dry climates. It gets really gross after a few weeks.

Besides that, the danger to animal should be a concern, though I haven't heard of a case where a dog died because of chocolate mulch.

I now use dark cypress hardwood mulch, which looks similar to chocolate mulch, but hopefully without the mold problem.

Paul
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dirtgirl
16 years ago
some kind of hover fly?
you might look up "corn tassel fly" or just "hover fly" and see if anything looks familiar.

And if this is your critter, they are beneficial insects so no worries there.

Is this mulch the one made up of coffee bean hulls or cocoa bean hulls or something? a friend of ours had this put down on a walkway and I'd never heard of it before. Looked like it would blow away in a good storm, not to mention track around easily due to its weird consistency.
welcome1
16 years ago
Just put this mulch down maybe 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ago. It's not just the nasty mold that has appeared but the worst is that the mold has started to kill my flowers in the bed containing the Chocolate Mulch. I am sorry I didn't read up on this prior to putting it down. We are now in the process of removing the mulch to try and save my flower beds. Big expense if I lose those.