It's a columnar Japanese holly (probably Sky Pencil) and it's flowering. The flies are pollinators that are attracted to the flowers. They are only present for a very short period of time and no treatment required or advised.

Thank you for the info. We thought we would have to pull the shrub out entirely. We just moved to the south and weren’t familiar.

i converted to the latin name.. and this is how i look for future potential for plants: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Ilex+crenata+%27Sky+Pencil%27&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

hard to tell from these pix.. but im not sure this is a good choice for that tiny little spit of dirt right there ... it might eventually have to go ... but with this pic.. i cant really recommend anything else ... a pic of the front of the house.. might get you some suggestions for other things .. when the time comes ....

do note .... it is already leaning away from the building ... it was either planted improperly.. crooked.. or its reaching out away from the building ... it may start infringing on the walkway ... and as i recall... holly isnt fun to brush against ... walking to the car .... lol ...

ken

It's a columnar plant....it will never get very wide. And it it will take years before it attains the height shown in any of those photos. And it can be trimmed to maintain whatever height you want. Japanese holly is very much like boxwood, which it closely resembles, in that regard. And just like boxwood, brushing against it is a non-issue.

Some folks are just too fast on the "just get rid of it" bandwagon. Many plants in our gardens "might eventually have to go". But that does not mean you need to worry about it now or make plans for its immediate replacement. Unless you want to.

Having just moved in to. New construction house in a strange state we have had so many things to do and learn and buy 🙄. Happily we can just leave this guy alone for now and see what happens as time goes by. Tract builders aren’t known for their landscape design.

Specimen shown is in the process of splaying open, as this cultivar rather often does.