These little flies have infiltrated my apartment from the outside garden. They are about 3-4mm in length and are gray with black spots. There are also other flies of similar size that have antenna with little hairs emanating from them (the antenna is the center stem part with the hairs growing outward), I'll try to get a picture of them. Does anyone know what these are (or the other flies)? Can they bite me?
I suspect that these most likely are phantom midges (Diptera: Chaoboridae); the ones with feathery antennae would be males - see http://tinyurl.com/23nexwu for an example. These midges are non-biters; if yours were biting midges (Diptera Ceratopogonidae), I'm sure that you already would know - those things are absolutely voracious!
Thanks suunto! That looks right. All the flies look similar, but there was one or two that was unusually large, at least compared to the rest of them. I opened my window in the morning and it flew out. I have a screen, but they seem to be very good at getting through the little holes. I haven't experienced any bites. Are the biting midges related to the sand flies than transmit Leishmaniasis? ...that would be a bad thing. I recall an episode of House were a lady was bitten by a sand fly and got something called Visceral leishmaniasis; she ended up dying from infection. Of course that's just a TV show.
On a different note, every so often I find these rather large ants on the floors and walls. They're pretty big, but they are also very slow and sluggish when they move. I'll try to get a picture if one shows up.
Not to worry - the midges that vector leishmaniasis are called sand flies, and belong to a different family, Psychodidae - see http://tinyurl.com/2c4ue28
