I can’t figure this out. When I go sit in my backyard to relax or fire up the frill there are a million flies. I mean a lot. Today I purchased a fly catcher thingie. I put it up on the backyard patio and came back a few hours later…it was freaking full.
I live in nice residential area, nowhere near a landfill or anything. Theres nothing that I can see that would attract so many flies in my yard. There aren’t thany flies near the garbage cans on the other side of the freaking house. I noticed that there seem to be a lot of lies on the ground near the patio in the grass. Do flies make underground colonies or something? Theres nothing in the grass to attract them. I don’t get it. What could attract so many flies?
Is there any chance there’s an accumulation of animal bits/blood under or around the grill?
The only time I’ve dealt w/ a really big swarm of flies was around something that had recently died. They have an incredible sense of smell when it comes to dead/decomposing stuff.
A couple years ago I threw out some rotten chicken in an outside can on a Wednesday. Trash didn’t come until Tuesday. It was also a heat wave, with average daily highs of 98+ degrees. By Tuesday morning when the garbage man came, I think every fly on the block was hanging around that garbage can.
I’d suggest maybe spraying down the area w/ a hose? Something is enticing them to collect in that spot. They don’t burrow, so you can count that hypothesis out.
No to the sewer grates. Nothing in my back yard but some trees (and not close to the patio) and grass, that is regularly mowed and cared for.
Mr. Buttons, no, there isn’;t a lot of rotting food laying about. I clean my grill all of the time. Theres nothing in it for them to be that attracted to. I’ll try spraying the aea as you suggested, but its strange to me. Something is making them congregate in the area of the patio and theres nothing that I can actually find. I don’t get it.
Whi;e I’m inclined to support the food-particles hypothesis, especially since theere’s a grill nearby, Ive noticed that flies are sometimes attracted to body pheronomes or something – there were periods in the summer when Barb or I – never both of us – could not use our deck at our old place owing to flies, apparently from the horse pasture over 100 feet away. Food particles were not at issue – rainstorms and hot soap-and-water had been applied since the last time we’d eaten out there. It was clearly different species being attracted to us, and perspiration or pheronomes sems the only logical explanation.
I blame the cool, damp weather. Is it cool and damp where you are? Some years there are no flies around here, or not very many. This spring we’ve been bombarded, indoors and out. Like you, there’s no landfill nearby, no garbage cans (open or not), no more dead animals than usual. I bet I killed 30+ yesterday, just in the basement. They don’t congregate – they’re just everywhere.
Is the concentration of flies in that area significantly higher than in other areas at the same time? Couldn’t it just be a good-for-flies kinda day and they are all over?
Talk to your kids, maybe they are spilling sugar sticks all over the place or something of the sort. It doesn’t take a dead horse to bring the flies. There might be plenty of food for them that doesn’t smell to you.
If science fails, just hose and soap the whole place down. Whatever it is you might just hit it even if you cannot see it.
Nope. Not growing stuff. I did notice that there were less flies tonight. I guess the fly trap works pretty well. I also sprayed the patch of grass where they seem to gather with bug spray.
As with many insect-related questions, “It all depends…”
There are over 16,000 different species of flies in North America. If you could tell me what species they are, then I might be able to answer your question very precisely and definitively. Without knowing, the best you can hope for is a very vague guess. And as far as vague guesses, there are only two general categories of explanation (for “Why do flies gather outdoors in this particular spot?”) that I can offer, each of which will apply to a large variety of different flies:
(1) There is something in the area that is attractive to the adult flies. Since you claim to not have any plants that are attractive, nor funky smells or food sources (i.e., that there is nothing there the flies are feeding on as adults), that leaves VISUAL attraction. If there is something in this area that is either white, yellow, or light blue (all common colors in flowers), then this is exactly the kind of visual cue that can attract all sorts of different insects, flies included. Also, if there is something very dark, or something highly reflective, both of those will be attractive for different reasons, to different types of flies (dark objects are often used by male flies as “landmarks” over which they will hover to wait for females, and reflective objects are viewed as possible water sources).
(2) There is something in the area upon which the fly larvae are feeding, and the adults just happen to hang around after they emerge. This is especially likely in places where the lawn is watered frequently, or where there is composting.
Nearly every specific explanation for any specific sort of fly will fall into one of those two categories. Without knowing exactly which of our >16,000 species it is, however, it’s not going to be very easy to narrow it down much.
I had the same problem in my backyard patio. They would just fly around and get in your face and annoy. It was very embarrassing to have all these flies just circling the patio. It was that many and that obvious. There was always this gooey sticky stuff you couldn’t see along the top of the patio. I always thought that was what was attracting them yet they never landed on it. The water hose and spray couldn’t never get it off. It went on for years and then last year they didn’t come back. I do have an in ground pool in my backyard, but it is clean.