Fly Infestation

[HeatherC]

Anyone else experiencing a very large number of house flies lately? I am in Massachusetts and just spent a few days at my dad’s in Rhode Island where he had just had a huge infestation of flies on the outside of his deck slider. Spent two days killing them, bleaching a bunch of disgusting maggots (fly eggs) to get rid of them.

As soon as he gets his house cleared, my daughter calls me and tells me we now have one at our house. Then my Mother In Law calls from another town about 45 minutes away with the same thing! Yesterday, three of my daughters friends who are also spread out in different communities said they are having the same problem.

Thankfully, things have settled down after vigorously killing them, etc. It only lasted a few days but was disgusting to deal with.

Anyone else, have this happen lately?

 

[shh]

I'm in Florida - we are super vigilant (some would say OCD!) about immediately closing our front door or garage the sec after we open it and scoot through. Flies are present all year due to the heat, constant rains/moisture. Most of the time, that keeps them out.

I have neighbors that keep their garage door open literally most of the day and I always wonder how they aren't plagued with flies and other critters.

 

[The Mayor]

I live in MA, 20 miles north of Boston, and we haven’t had any fly issues. Just a couple that have gotten in when our grandchildren hold the door open!!

 

[barkley]

just pulled the fly traps out. we hang one from the light fixture on our attached garage so we can ideally keep them from coming in when we enter that way, and another on a garden hook at the base of the stairs to our deck. the traps smell nasty but they are somewhat effective.

 

[OneOftheB's]

We have chickens as do several neighbors (and horses nearby too) so flies are a part of summer around my house. I did put out a fly trap well away from the house this year and have noticed a marked decrease in flies inside the house this year. They tend to enter our basement when my husband is working on something then get upstairs when someone comes/goes from the basement. I hate flies with a passion.

 

[Princesca]

It's a problem this year in KY. Not as bad as the tick problem though.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Oh yes! Our garbage cans are constantly getting maggots and have to be bleached and then rinsed out weekly, and there are flies everywhere. Just lots more insects than usual in general, we've noticed.

 

[holden]

Yes, we have a lot of flies here in PA.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Do you have any farms in your area? In some areas farmers would get free fertilizer every other year, the fertilizer was chicken manure and both the smell and fly counts would go off the charts. We had this a while in PA, and I know because people were up in arms over it. Farmers argued it was organic but neighbors decried it as an awful nuisance to the point people couldn't go outside a few weeks every other year because of the swarms but the issue seems to have backed off, or it's just an off year where our home is located.

We got in the habit of hanging a Hot Shot No Pest strip in the garage which keeps flies from gathering there, when they fade I leave them in the pails to deter bugs. The big home improvement places usually have them. I put them up in April and then swap in August so the pails are protected during maximum icky garbage season. This stuff is not safe inside a home though.

 

[Colleen27]

Yep, and for the life of me I can't find where they're coming from! I haven't seen a single maggot, and believe me, I've been looking because I'd like to cut the problem off at the source. Just big swarms of flies outside, a certain number of which find their way inside because our screens are a mess. We're getting new windows next month so hopefully that helps keep them outside, at least.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Anyone else experiencing a very large number of house flies lately? I am in Massachusetts...

not a huge number, but more than usual (also in Mass)

 

[smokeyblue]

I had a fly infestation about 2 years ago and it was absolutely disgusting. I ended up making some traps by putting apple cider vinegar in plastic cups and making funnels to put in them with by making a cone out of paper. It took about 24 hours for them to really start getting attracted to the scent and within 48 hours after that all the flies were gone. It was so gross to find how many of them were floating in the cups.

 

[Boopuff]

Once a year, here in Colorado, we get the “Miller moth invasion “. They get in somewhere, everywhere it’s insane. Lasts about a month, the. They move on. It’s the worst

 

[Sinder]

About a month ago we kept getting them in the house. I assumed that they were from coming in and out the slider and/or they were coming in from the garage into the house.
I never found a source inside and then one day no more flies.
I have never had that issue before. Maybe one once in awhile but for a couple weeks it was like there were 2 then I’d kill them there would be two more, rinse and repeat. It was weird.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Not really but every now and then we get a couple of huge ones. I keep fly swatters on hand but often the terrier gets them, lol. I hope you can figure out what the problem is. It might be worth talking to an exterminator, they often have a very interesting take on things.

 

[tasha99]

All year we've had more black flies outside than I think is typical. Not sure why--maybe a neighbor's chickens or trash. Very few inside, because we keep the doors closed. One made it in yesterday, but one of my cats killed it in the most playful, catlike way. And she didn't eat it! (her sister always eats the bugs she catches)

 

[bcla]

We've been hit with houseflies recently. There's this one place they like to congregate where it's a constant buzzing sound. I went out and got some flypaper rolls and they've been occasionally hitting it. I tried using one by partially pulling it out and then using it as a wand to pull in flies. I did get some of the adhesive here and there (some on my hair), and a few flies even got caught in those spots. I guess they can't survive once they get it on the wings and/or legs, even if they manage to break free. I think they eventually exhaust themselves to death.

 

[Disneylover99]

Timely thread for me today. We haven’t had flies in the house in years, and now I’m sitting here with my fly swatter. I’m not sure where they’re coming from. Yuck.

 

[DodgerGirl]

When I lived in my old house my mom and I would see a lot of flies sometimes and my mom and I aren't bug crazy but we used to have a neighbor who had goats and sheep and every time the neighbor's goats would make big messes of manure flies would attract our house. And my mom and I would be constantly trying to get rid of the flies which somehow worked but then more would show up. We did not just have flies in my old house I also had bees too and once we had a bee infestation in our bathroom because every time you'd go to the bathroom you would hear humming sounds and when you would take a bath the humming would get worse and then turn into an angry buzzing and so my dad had to call our landlady to see what she could do and it turned out a beehive was in the roof and that's why we also had bees in the kitchen too and one nearly stung Mom while she was doing dishes. But we haven't had a single fly infestation in our new house since then. What I can recommend is if you are still dealing with fly infestation I highly recommend calling a pest company or talking with your real estate agent and see if they can pay for the pest company's visit to save you time and money
Hope this helps you HeatherC,
Dodger

 

[AndreaDM]

Definitely more this year than we've seen in recent years. We don't go in/out a lot and when we do, it's quick, we're also puzzled as to how they are getting into the house. NE Ohio here.