more articles like this

Shoo Fly
updated: Mar 21, 2013, 2:30 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

Flies in the kitchen, I can hear them buzzing We've had an explosion of house flies - mostly in our kitchen, and I can't figure out why, or where they might be coming from. No open windows. They've spread out to all the windows in the house, where they crawl around until I either let them out or kill them mercilessly. These are a very slow breed, so swatting them isn't hard. I've just never seen so many. Anyone else having this issue?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 387898	2013-03-21 02:52 PM
They're HOUSEFLIES! Where do you expect them to be? But seriously, we've had the semi-dazed version in our house last year. Quite a few. We just let them out or sprayed them with window cleaner, then cleaned the windows. Fly population decreased to zero in a couple of days and we ended up with clean windows. Does that make them "beneficial insects?"
COMMENT 387899	2013-03-21 02:55 PM
I had it last year. I can't figure it out either. My screens are all in place. I did notice the files were large so it doesn't appear to be hatchlings. It only happened when the weather was warm-hot. By the way, hair spray is effective as it stiffens their wings so they can easily be gotten.
COMMENT 387906	2013-03-21 03:04 PM
I had this problem a while back. we have a friend who is a pest guy, he told us there from a dead animal most likely under the house eeeewwww.. the magets eat the animal and then turn into flys.. pretty much the grosses thing i have heard...
COMMENT 387908	2013-03-21 03:06 PM
Any old food around, hidden pet food leftovers/treats? Dead rodents outside,or in the walls? (not trying to be gross, just asking). Trash cans up by the house? New neighbors who don't pick up their dog poo? New horses or livestock (goats, sheep) moving into your area?
COMMENT 387912	2013-03-21 03:09 PM
I've been having a similar issue, but with small mosquito-looking bugs. They're itty bitty, just a little bigger than a fruit fly, and I primarily find them in the bedroom farthest from any open doors or windows. I regularly clean the room, including moving furniture and vacuuming baseboards and window sills, but can't figure out where they're coming from. I don't know if they're actually mosquitoes (not aware of any bites, but they do buzz around people like mosquitos), or just an insect trying to look like one, but they're gross and I'd prefer they not be around at all! Anyone have suggestions?
COMMENT 387913P	2013-03-21 03:10 PM
Sorry, but I agree with 906. We had rats a few times in a previous house in Dallas. When one died in the attic or walls the first sign would be lots of house flies.
ECHO	2013-03-21 03:12 PM
We haven't had the flies, but have seen an increase of mosquito eaters. They end up inside the house. We've had at least 5 at one time and others buzzing around the lights on the porch.
COMMENT 387918	2013-03-21 03:14 PM
Yup. You got a dead animal somewhere inside your house.
COMMENT 387932	2013-03-21 03:45 PM
We had the same thing here...it was like Amityville horror. Hundreds and hundreds of drunk on flesh, flys. They were on the walls, ceiling and windows, and they just kept coming! I just sucked them up in the Dyson! Then I found the carcass and bones of the dead possom under the house. But how those flys got in the house, I could never figure out.
COMMENT 387944	2013-03-21 04:02 PM
Where there are flies there are maggots. Look at the bottom of your garbage cans. They are feasting on something.
REXOFSB	2013-03-21 05:18 PM
On the Upper Westside our neighborhood gets infested with huge flies about this time of year. When they congregate at the windows, I suck 'em up with my portable Dustbuster. It's actually kinda fun!
COMMENT 387989	2013-03-21 06:13 PM
If you take a ziplock fill it half way with water and add 4 pennies....hang it in an area with flies and they will leave.
REXOFSB	2013-03-21 06:45 PM
Maybe they have pennies envy.
COMMENT 388014P	2013-03-21 06:48 PM
We own a home built in the 60s. The pipes are getting old and every spring we have - for a better description, little knats coming up from the kitchen sink and shower drain. A smart mosquito hawk has checked in to our "shower hotel" and I could not, nor did not, want to bother him. I was hoping that maybe he would dine on the knats, So...I took a shower with my new buddy, the mosquito hawk this morning. I just asked him not to "bug" me and he did not comment on my cellulite and all was fine.Has anyone had a mosquito hawk eat knats in the shower area or just enjoy the peaceful annoyance of knats coming from a shower drain?
COMMENT 388015	2013-03-21 06:49 PM
OP here. Thanks folks, I'll go on a dead animal hunt if this persists. I cleared out the current batch (yes to the clean windows!) These were definitely houseflies, and of varying size, but all purty slow. But what's with the wet pennies? That makes no sense!
COMMENT 388031	2013-03-21 07:21 PM
14P, do your realize if the Gnats are coming in through drains that means your pipes have holes? I moved into a house that had been the model for the development. After about a year I realized gnats were coming up through the drain. Turned out the developer in their haste to get the house ready to show never bothered to connect the the shower drain to a sewer pipe. I had 1 year' worth of standing water in my crawlspace and a direct, unobstructed flyway into the house. You might want to get your basement space checked out.
COMMENT 388041P	2013-03-21 07:42 PM
Yo Edd Kid - Basement? I am from SB. Go to East Coast to hear from nutty relatives about their basements. Ha. I think you are possibly quite correct about holes in pipes. Minor digging or major digging? Excavation next step. AARGH.
COMMENT 388046P	2013-03-21 07:53 PM
Rex - good one on the heavenly coins...har-har
COMMENT 388054	2013-03-21 08:19 PM
I've lived in the SB/Goleta area for over 34 years. Twice I've had the large fly infestation. It seemed that they came all of the sudden and were in large numbers and then the population started to dwindle. The 1st time came after a very wretched smell (I always thought that an animal had died within the walls). The 2nd wasn't so defined. Good luck and keep your fly-swatter handy!
COMMENT 388055	2013-03-21 08:22 PM
those are not houseflies, they are cluster flies. Nothing to do with dead animals etc. The larvae feed on earthworms in the summer, and the adults often go into houses in the fall to hibernate. Then they suddenly appear out of the walls and attic when it warms up in spring. If you want to get rid of them pay attention to where they can get in in the fall and block them off.
COMMENT 388083P	2013-03-22 12:34 AM
Please, OP, do not spray flies or anything that comes into your house. Window cleaner and hairspray? That's just plain cruel. Go online and purchase a BugBuster. Easy to use and the gentle, kind way to treat unwanted house guests (doesn't work on relatives, though). If you're not smelling any dead, decomposing flesh (raccoon, opossum, rats), then it could well be someone in your neighborhood has started a compost pile, but isn't maintaining it properly. (Animals dying under your house is usually a sign that you or neighbors are putting out poison.) A compost pile may account for sudden invasion of houseflies, since, if not turned enough and kept in good state of decomposition, the pile will act ,sometimes, as a hatchery for flies. As for the person who thinks that mosquitos fly around inside the house, for days, in small groups, that's just hilarious to me. Maybe in Hawaii or some other tropical place, but not in SB----unless you're keeping all your windows open and live next to a swampy area. Even then . . . I LOVE mosquito hawks. This is their time of the year. Please, everyone, leave them be and let them do their jobs. (Love you, shower lady!) With a BugBuster, it's a simple thing to transport them and any other bugs/spiders outside. Hooray for bugs.
YPYETR	2013-03-22 07:26 AM
One word; Deoderant. JK. ;>{)
COMMENT 388165P	2013-03-22 08:20 AM
mythbusters pretty much proved the water/penny bag as a myth - at least for the one type of fly. Somehow, I have no problem being cruel to flies in my house but my favorite things to torture are fleas. A jar with soapy water and they drown.
COMMENT 388184P	2013-03-22 08:44 AM
Pennies have copper, and it might be that the flies detect the copper, and don't like it some way? By the way, at the risk of being a troll, copper kills fish (don't know about turtles) so please don't throw pennies into fish ponds.
COMMENT 388201	2013-03-22 09:02 AM
I had a job with horse flies buzzing around my desk. Horse stables near by and co-workers kept their doors open vand my co-worker wanted our door open. My desk was at an endpoint and they all landed on me, walked on my computer, crawled on papers and died on my screen. I no longer work there.
COMMENT 388217	2013-03-22 09:32 AM
cruelty to flies = category error
COMMENT 388252	2013-03-22 10:41 AM
Just get the shop vac and presto you can vacuum them right up in no time from the windows. Forget the fly swatter. Squashed flies, yuck!
CORKY	2013-03-22 03:23 PM
No, but walked into the kitchen today and startled a huge alligator, (I think) lizard who ran under my stove. Will keep my gloves handy if he ventures out. They bite!
COMMENT 388552	2013-03-22 08:14 PM
i don't think pennies have copper anymore.

41% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.