Strange creatures in my compost heap, with pics

[fourtytwo]

Hi all,
These have appeared in my compost heap, about the size of a wild bee but not hairy, stripy like a wasp but not aggressive, anybody know what they are please ?

The compost heap is an old chimney pot on a slab with the top covered except when were putting stuff in it. All our kitchen vegetable waste goes in there.

 

[Fred Blogs]

Yes we have had a couple of those flying around this year. I believe they are horse flies, or camel flies, or cow flies, or deer flies depending on which part of the world you live in.......................https://www.pestworld.org/pest-guide/flies/horse-flies/

 

[fourtytwo]

Ouch that worried me as i have already been bitten a few times by them this summer BUT I am not sure, I just discovered there are 280 species of flower or hover fly in the uk and some of them are large. The markings are very similar but the wings are plain whereas most horseflies seem to have wing markings, maybe wrong but there's no blood in the compost heap either so here is hoping

 

[Eccles]

Look like harmless hoverflies to me, see Wikipedia

 

[StephenStephen]

They don't look at all like horse flies to me, which anyway wouldn't be interested in compost.
Not sure what they are, but I'm pretty confident they're nothing to worry about.

 

[fourtytwo]

Well I left the lid off so they could all fly away which they did, but quite slowly one by one some remaining more than an hour. The way they were behaving made me think they could be lacking sugar/pollen that they would not find in there. I wonder if they hatched in there. Anyway all gone now, thanks everyone.