Small flies bug city

They appear as tiny blobs hovering between your eyes, only to dart away when you try to catch them.

They're the tiny vinegar fly, often referred to incorrectly as the fruit fly.

Either way they're annoying.

One Auckland pest controller has been taking calls from irritated cafe and homeowners asking for the exterminators to come and kill the flies.

Ruud Kleinpaste, better known as "the bugman" said he had had complaints from several Auckland cafes about the tiny flying insects.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said the flies are a common type of vinegar fly that has been in New Zealand since the 1940s and not, thankfully, a new species.