do you see any damage to the plants???

have you added any mulch or 'nure or anything recently ...

no matter how many.. bugs alone do not require a response.. unless they are actually doing damage ..

ken

ps: i cant imagine how many of those little things make a ton ... lol ...

Leafminers don't have long proboscises like that. I don't know a lot about insects, but it should be pretty obvious to someone who does. Bee flies look somewhat like that, but tend to be somewhat furry. Can't see in your pix. They are after flower nectar, like bees, and don't harm plants. If your arborvitae have flowers, which many do in the spring, that could be consistent.

i do have damage and do have leaf miners, need to get sprayed when they are hatched. so seeing if these are them.

lol. ok thank you. i had a bontanist here to spray them a few weeks back. said to call him when i see them flying arounnd so he can spray again

Leaf miners *are* flies, but not while they're actually mining. Liriomyza sativae. Leaf miner flies do not look at all like the insects you have in your pictures.

Some leafminers are moths. Some are flies. It's a lifestyle, not a taxonomic category.

This thing looks a little like a parasitic wasp (but really hard to tell). Do they wander on the plant tapping their antennae on the leaves searching for leafminers?

Liriomyza sativae are referred to, in the scientific literature, as flies. That's the vegetable leaf miner. But it's true that Arborvitae leaf miners may be different.

The insect pictures resembles a braconid wasp.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1413434/bgimage

They are beneficial, and sometimes form swarms.

These things have what appear to be a long, narrow, black proboscis. Wasps don't have any. Just two thin antennae. Strangely, the insect in the pictures above doesn't have any conspicuous antennae. That's a funny flying insect. But maybe the pictures aren't good enough to see them.

My interpretation of the images is that it is a dead insect in a death posture.

One of the forelegs is pointed in front of the head. (it would be unusual for some people to hold a live unknown insect in their hand, and for it to stay still enough to photograph)

Catch another one, Chris! We need more pictures. :)

if the weather cooperates i will 100% be out there looking like a crazy swipping them outta the air

new pics!

Much better!

I'm sticking with parasitic wasps. That's as far as I go in ID, but at least you know they won't hurt your plants (or you).

thank you all very much, learned some nee things.

makes a sense, I am told my bushes have leafminers and these wasps apparently eat leafminers. might help solve the issue

Wow, these guys look quite different than the ones in your original pix. That's what you get when you try to identify a damaged insect with a few pixels.

Diglyphus isaea , I think.

so is there a remedy for leafminers that wont kill these "beneficial" wasps or just let the wasps do their thing

Other than the arborvitaes (and their leafminer IS a moth). Most leafiners are more of a cosmetic issue than something that actually harms plants. I never bother to treat for them. And beneficial wasps parasitize a lot more problem pests than just leafminer larvae. I would encourage them before I'd try to eliminate something else that is really not much of a problem at all.