Tiny Black Flies - Help!!!!

Proudmum_2

Hello All

I hope someone can help (and I hope this is in the right bit as this is my first post)

At the moment we have a number of tiny tiny black flies in our house (can I add at this point I keep the house v v clean) and have been trying to read up on the net why they might be appearing with no success

A lot of the information seems to be linking the flies to plants (we dont have any (we only have flowers in the house on a rare occasion - the last being a few weeks ago and these have now gone too) also I dont have any food lying around, and although we have cats their litter is clean.

The flies are tiny, almost about 3-4mm long? and seemed to appear out of nowhere. Is it just the time of year? Is anyone else suffering? I have even had a look to see if the cats have brought anything in but to be honest they are not hunters and I cannot find anything.

Can anyone suggest something? As I would love to get rid of them or find out where they are coming from

Many Thanks in advance x

Olokia

Could they be fruit flies? They are very tiny and loads of them. They are the only flies I've seen in a house.

If they are, (and this may still work if they aren't), put a glass with a piece of old fruit in near where the flies are. Make a funnel out of paper with the small hole in the glass. The fruit flies will fly in and find it difficult to get out.

Or, put a piece of old fruit in a bowl and cover with cling film. Make quite a few holes with a fork (if the holes are too big, they will just fly back out) and put this near the flies.

Proudmum_2

Olokia wrote: »

Could they be fruit flies? They are very tiny and loads of them. They are the only flies I've seen in a house.

If they are, (and this may still work if they aren't), put a glass with a piece of old fruit in near where the flies are. Make a funnel out of paper with the small hole in the glass. The fruit flies will fly in and find it difficult to get out.

Or, put a piece of old fruit in a bowl and cover with cling film. Make quite a few holes with a fork (if the holes are too big, they will just fly back out) and put this near the flies.

Thank you hun

If they are fruit flies and I dont have any fruit in my house, what is attracting them I wonder?

Its v bizzare! I will have a go at what you have said, my only concern is where theyre coming from and where theyre continuing to come from

x

Olokia

Proudmum wrote: »

If they are fruit flies and I dont have any fruit in my house, what is attracting them I wonder?

Its v bizzare! I will have a go at what you have said, my only concern is where theyre coming from and where theyre continuing to come from

They can come from fruit, vegetables, fruit juice, ketchup, cooking wine and I think meat.

Could something have fallen somewhere like under the fridge. Probably near to where most of the flies are. Something tiny can start them off and unless you actively try to get rid of them, they may stay a while.

Jnelhams

They are annoying little beggars, and can be either Onion flies or Fruit Flies, they come in on fruit from the garden, Apples and Pears are culprits, and slightly too soft veggies like Onions.

So now to get rid of them, very tough. You need to chuck /use up any fruit or veggies that are in the house. Next check for open bottles of jam, sauces anything really, including breakfast cereals and dried fruit. Wash down behind appliances and make sure every where is spotless.

Now to catch the little darlings, you need a narrow bottle, in fact the best thing is a small bottle of Malt or Cider/Wine Vinegar empty out about a third and leave the cap off over night. In the morning it will have started to fill with dead flies, sadly this will not get rid of them all, so you will need to buy a small electric fly killer from Maplins (like the blue light things you see in butchers and bakers) about £20 and leave it plugged in for a few days, and enjoy the crackle of burnt flies. You will also then have to be on the look out for the odd one who seems to be devoid of sight and smell and creep up with a bar of wet soap and smack it one.

Trust me it will take about 2 weeks to clear a bad infestation caused by just a few windfall apples from a kindly neighbour....

gilly1964

Yes please tell me about it - was just about ready to scream, but remembered we had one of those blue light things in the loft and it is doing the job well

Sunnyday

We seem to have these this year too, i`m blaming the basil plant on the windowsill but it could also be the apples that were gifted to us or the onions and produce from the garden.

Thing is i`ve not noticed them actually on or around anything outside so a bit weird.

I keep swatting them with a big plastic hand shaped swatter that i have and then hoovering them up with the tools on the dyson

Think that i shall have to try one of the above suggested traps though as i don`t want them around when i`m filtering the wine.

I shall also see if i can find one of the blue insect-o-cutors, if i could find a small cheap one then it would come in very handy.

SD

Yorkie1

Fungus gnats live in plant compost; they tend to appear when the compost is kept too moist.

aliasojo

We have loads of these too but the strange thing is, they only appear upstairs, mainly on the bathroom and my bedroom ceiling. You'd think if they were in search of food they would come in downstairs.

2sides2everystory

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Fungus gnats live in plant compost; they tend to appear when the compost is kept too moist.

Yes I had heard this too. Fungus knats = fruit flies = banana flies, right? Clearly the flies situation is somehow exacerbated by the presence of fruit in bowls but the key seems to be that they lay their eggs in soil in such things as bonzai plants and basil plants and once they reach a critical mass they will persist around these plants. I am not sure how you get rid of the eggs in the soil without getting rid of the plant unless there is some joint fungicide/insecticide solution.

Yorkie1

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Yes I had heard this too. Fungus knats = fruit flies = banana flies, right? Clearly the flies situation is somehow exacerbated by the presence of fruit in bowls but the key seems to be that they lay their eggs in soil in such things as bonzai plants and basil plants and once they reach a critical mass they will persist around these plants. I am not sure how you get rid of the eggs in the soil without getting rid of the plant unless there is some joint fungicide/insecticide solution.

I had always thought that fungus gnats were different from fruit flies but wouldn't swear to it.

BBC website guidance on fungus gnats here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/advice/pests_and_diseases/identifier.shtml?black_fungus_gnats