Yesterday we had an explosion of flies emerge, probably from the downstairs bathroom, which at one point had about 20 flies. They spread through the house, most of them rather slow and stupid and easy to kill. But we killed at least 50, perhaps more, using swatters and sticky traps.
We seem to have gotten the upper hand, but there are still a few popping up.
This has happened a few times before, but on a much smaller scale. It usually ends after a few days. It may happen that way this time, too, Og willing.
We’ve called a local exterminator, but haven’t heard back from him yet.
Any idea where they can all be coming from, what we can do to prevent these explosions, and how best to kill them?
Until we blocked rat access to our walls and ceiling areas, we had fly explosions once or two per year. Hundreds of them at a time. (they were slow, and we just vacuumed them up) (when we opened up our walls, we found many mummified rats)
If you have an electrical outlet nearby, I recommend these Zevo insect traps, which work great for flying insects. They have a blue light to attract insects and a sticky surface to trap them.
It would help to have an idea what type of flies. There are over 100,000 species with very diverse habits, habitats, and food sources. This is like asking where rhese mammals are coming from and you don’t say if it is squirrels or wolves.
I’ve noticed anywhere we’ve deposited corn husks or potato peels, or a banana peel. And kind of fruit or veg leaving it will swarm with flies in a couple of hours.
This would be outdoors. I often leave the scraps for wildlife, trying to keep them out of the burn barrel.
I could see it being a problem if it were near an open door. Block their way, as best you can. Remove dead plant material from near entrances. (And any corpses ), spray and swat.
But yeah. Home pest control should do it. I like the Zevo brand, myself.
What kind of flies? Are they house flies, drain flies or another kind of fly?
If they are drain flies, they could be coming from your drains (surprisingly). There are compounds you can pour down the drain that will kill them off, but it can take a couple weeks to truly see effects.
How do I tell what kind of flies I have? They look to me like ordinary house flies. They’re big and black. The ones that recently emerged were mostly slow and easy to kill, not quick and cunning, like some flies.
We are sometime bothered by much smaller midge- or gnat-like critters, less than a millimeter long, but these are much bigger, ~5-8 mm from head to tail.
Well, you either need a priest or a group of paranormal investigators with deep knowledge of the occult and an a crazy-eyed codger who mutters under his breath and is must barely hanging onto his last few points of SAN.
About a year ago I had a sudden influx of flies, and like the OP, they were slow and sluggish. I had no idea where they came from (common house flies FWIW) but a squirt with flyspray despatched them in no short order. I wonder if they’ll come back again this year, same fly time, same fly channel?
), spray and swat.