I think I might have the same thing you have...I'm not sure what they are though! They aren't gnats or flea beetles...I don't know what else they would be! I don't have them at home in my garden, but there are TONS at the feedlot where I work in disgusting swarms. Sorry I can't be of more help..I'm not sure if they'll harm plants or not.

I don't live on the prairies but I'll bet your bugs are fungus gnats. Fungus gnats feed on decaying plant matter in the soil, but the larva does also feed on plant roots. The biggest danger though is that they may bring fungal disease spores with them.

A drench of the soil with soapy water will kill the larva. Watch the soapy water around plants that are still growing though--don't put too much and water it in after you apply the drench so the soap gets down to the larva.

This will not kill the adults though unless you happen to spray them with the soap. Yellow sticky cards or fly strips around the garden will catch quite a few though.

Weeper, do those bugs just sort of land on you and then never fly away again? I have to pick them off before going back in the house. Do you suppose any of your co-workers know what they are?

Oilpainter, I looked up a pictue of fungus knats and it's not them. Last year I used strips of packing tape and hung them, taped to itself only at the top and bottom inside out, to the tomato plants and thousands of them stuck to the tape. I used sunlight soap and water this morning on the beans to experiment, because the beans haven't even bloomed yet so I most likely won't get beans anyway.

Any other ideas ? Anyone?

Haven't seen any here, north of Winnpeg...

A lot of the pictures of fungus gnats on the web are magnified. A fungus gnat is 1/16th of an inch or 2 mm long and look much like a fruitfly or blackfly to the naked eye. They do stick to things after they die. They only live a short while as flies. Long enough to lay their eggs and then die

Maybe I shouldn't rule out that they're some type of fungus gnat as Oilpainter suggested. Weeper, do we get many different ones in Saskatchewan?

Oilpainter, if you read this, do you know (or anyone else) if any type of fungus knat shows up at this time of year? I recall having them in late August last year, too. There isn't any near my compost. Wouldn't they like compost? Maybe I should put some in a jar and try to find someone at a garden centre that could possibly identify them.

Until I find out from here or elsewhere, I guess I should get out a roll of packing tape.

Where would this world be without duct tape and packing tape LOL !!

Yes, they could be fungus gnats...LOL, I jinxed myself by saying "not gnats." I guess they are not the gnats that I'm used to encountering around the yard. But the pics do look fairly similar. On Monday, if you haven't got a concrete answer yet, I'll take a close look at the ones at the farm and see if they are the same thing.

And yes, NAF, they seem to get "stuck" everywhere! In my hair, along the collar of my shirt..yuck!

Well, I took a bagged leaf to a garden centre and the woman there said my pest looked like a flying aphid. She wasn't positive.

So, since I did discover the "regular type" green aphids in the last few days, I guess I'll go with aphid.......or fungus gnat......or aphid........fungus gnat......???

Either way I guess I'll continue with the tape and search out some ladybugs and transplant them to the worst spot. I don't recall ladybugs being interested in them last year though. Maybe they're not their favourite?

Oh, I do know what you mean! Yes, those are flying aphids. They stick to you. I used to get them in my maple trees a lot. I was confused because fungus gnats don't stick to a person, particularly...

Yes they could be aphids. Aphids do come in black and they do stick to things. I never thought of them because I don't have an aphid problem of any kind and I've never seen a black aphid, although I do know there are such things. If that's what they are then they are easily disposed of. Neem oil spray will do the trick . Spraying with a strong stream of water will dislodge them too, but neem kills them and is environmentally friendly.

A Sure way to tell if it's aphids is if you see ants around them they like to farm the aphids

My yard (actually the whole block, I think) is swarming in these things the past couple of days, to the point that we don't open our mouths while we walk to the car and even squint a bit or they fly into our eyes. They seem to do this every year, but this year they seem worse than usual, especially in the evenings. Most times I don't care much where they land, but they are the bane of my existence when I have to wash them off my green beans - they stick like burs to socks!

The season is nearly over but this is a common event as mid August to end of August rolls around the aphids begin to move> Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
"Some species produce winged females in the summer, sometimes in response to low food quality or quantity. The winged females migrate to start new colonies on a new plant, often of quite a different kind. For example, the apple aphid (Aphis Mali), after producing many generations of wingless females on its typical food-plant, gives rise to winged forms which fly away and settle on grass or corn-stalks.

Some aphids have telescoping generations. That is, the parthenogenetic, viviparous female has a daughter within her, who is already parthenogenetically producing her own daughter. Thus a female's diet can affect the body size and birth rate of more than two generations (daughters and granddaughters).[42][43]."

Here is a link that might be useful: Aphids