Nasties in our kitchen

starlite_2

Hope this is the right place to post..

We have been away for a few days and this morning I hve noticed lots of tiny flies in our kitchen, they are really small and seam to randomly drift around like midges.

then to my horror as making lunch I noticed a maggot on the back of our hob.

the flies seem to be mainly around the sink area.

I am really freaking out as we have a small baby and I am very careful about cleaning, any ideas what these are and what has caused them to appear?

And once that is established, how on earth do I get rid of them? we cannot afford to call anyone out unless as a last resort.

Any help much apprecited.

Nile

Hello starlite


This thread might be useful. Some of the tips posted on it might help you to rid your house of nasties.

Good Luck

Nile

starlite_2

thnks..given what is said there i think I may know where they are coming from. we have chest frezer set into the corner worksurface by the sink, and it is impossible to get behind to clean. It's possible something has fallen down there and thats where they are feeding and breeding.

No idea how we are going to find out though...argh....

Nile

In that case, I would be tempted to pick a day when your family can be out of the house on a day trip. Just before you set off (with the kids safely outside) spray a liberal dose of flykiller in the kitchen and quickly shut the door.


When you return home, open the kitchen window to ventilate the room and your nasties should be deceased.

starlite_2

Lol... thanks nile..but our kitchen/hall/living room are all open plan and the bedrooms and bathroom open onto it..i'd be too worried to spray such toxic stuff around.

i'm thinking about sticking our old hoover down there and just let it suck up any nasties without worrying about it getting blocked up by stray potato peelings etc , then spraying some neat bleach through the gap to 'get them'..surely they couldn't survive that!?

our kitchen is so badly designed..if the freezer was to break down we'd have to take out the neighbouring cupboards and work surfaces to get it out..
fingers crossed I won't be posting on here for advice relating to such anytime soon..

Volcano

Quite simply it seems you have some source of decomposing meat, whether a dead mouse/rat or discarded food, either in your kitchen or very close to it.

i'd be too worried to spray such toxic stuff around

Flyspray is the least of your worries. Some of the pathogens produced by rotting meat include those that cause tetanus and botulism poisoning and they can easily become airborne. Spraying bleach in some inaccessible corner won't remove the cause of the problem, unless you physically remove the meat.

If you have a small baby in the house then you don't need me to tell you the potential seriousness of the situation.

uncle_buck_3

You haven't got a bag of potatoes lying around anywhere have you?

We once had a load of small flies that suddenly seemed to appear in out kitchen….but it was the summer & we initially dismissed them as having came into the house through the patio doors….but they kept appearing…we tracked them down to a bag of potatoes in the pantry. The potatoes were only a few days old but were infested with these very small flies.

HTH

mummysaver

I agree with uncle buck, we have had these flies in the past from potatoes, and also from an over ripe punnet of plums that had got shoved out of sight! Once we got rid of the fruit/veg the problem went away.

If you have mice it will be fairly easy to tell as they leave a trail of droppings behind them, and it would be unlikely that they would come into your kitchen regularly unless there is a source of food easily available.

Most likely that either fruit or veg have got left somewhere, even in a cupboard.

myrnahaz

Mice smell of ammonia, so you'd notice that easily enough - I'm inclined to go with uncle buck and mummysaver (little tiny midgy things are usually fruit flies).

starlite_2

thanks all...we pulled out all appliances and cleaned throroughly, cleared out cupboards, wiped down tops of cupboards etc and i have set a few 'vinegar traps' as advised in the linked thread.

if the problem persists by next week i will call out pest control as this could obviously be serious!

wish me luck..hope they will all pee off! lol.

candygirl

we had the small flies with a forgotten bag of spuds too.they were horrid little !!!!!!s!! :mad: :mad: