Thyme - I have a 4 by 4 foot patch of thyme that has small purple flowers. There are lots of small bee's and a few wasps that are around the flowers, BUT there is a gazillion fly's that look like the common housefly in and around the plants. Anyone else have this going on? (It's my first year with this herb).
Thyme, Bees, wasps and fly's
I have tons of bees in my thyme, but I never noticed it attracting large numbers of flies.
Perhaps they are after something else... did you use manure in the bed?
I have several varieties of thyme and have tons of bees but don't see a lot of flies. ditto what dovey said
gram
There are many beneficial types of flies that frequent the blooming flowers in the garden such as Tachnid, syphid and hover flies.
Look at the pictures on this site (or google around for more photos).
http://pmo.umext.maine.edu/Homeowner/beneficials03172005A.html
You could be attracting an army of garden helpers that will eat cucumber beetles and other pests!
I have oodles of different types of bees in and among my thyme, and I've definitely had some flies in there too. Not a lot, but I have noticed flies that look like houseflies. I've never paid much attention to them because they are so few compared to the other insects. But now that you've mentioned it, I'll try to pay a bit mroe attentnion to what I see. (They appear mostly around my Creeping Thyme. My Orange, Lemon, Lime, Silver, and Wooly usually just have bees.)
I've noticed flies too, in my thyme beds, they also seem to like the blooms on my garlic chives. I think it might be the nectar that the blossoms produce. Maybe they just like the sweet smell and it's a cool place to hang out. I see them mostly during the day, not a lot of them, but a few.