Flies!!

ellay864

For the second summer running my house has become a haven for flies. I don't mean little tidgy midgy ones, I mean proper bluebottle type flies. Each day when I get home from work I'm confronted by a number of them on my windows at the front and back of the house, and the last few days also in the kitchen at the back of the house. We've actually resorted to getting rid of them by sucking them up in the hoover pipe, they're mostly quite dopey so we can do that before they fly away.
I've no idea where they're coming from, theres no obvious source but as we find them mostly round windows we thought they may be getting in from outside somehow but the windows are closed in the daytime. There's nothing obvious like food left out; we even checked in case our cat had brought something in that had died in a crevice. Today I must have come home to about 25 and it feels disgusting.
If anybody has any sugestions for prevention, or identifying where they might be coming from I'd be really grateful

devildog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_fly

I am guessing these could be your problem.
If it's any consolation they aren't really 'dirty' flies if that makes sense and but they certainly leave you feeling that way.
The unfortunate thing is if they have chosen 'your' house for home it is more than likely that you will get them year after year.

ellay864

That certainly seems to fit, though mine look a little darker. Also mine are mostly downstairs in the well used living/dining room and very rarely do we find the odd one upstairs. But I've been convinced they were coming in through the double glazed window unit so that fits perfectly (the theory I mean, maybe the window doesn't and that's the problem!!)

devildog

I'm the same, as in mostly downstairs and the attic. Tend to swat the downstairs ones, although you can buy containers that you sit on windowsill that contain either egg shell(or something similar) that drags the flies in to it(bit like quick sand ) For the attic, best waiting til winter when it's really cold(and all the blighters are in the roof) and either spraying htem with good old fly spray or you can buy 'smoke bombs' that kills them off too.

ellay864

I haven't been in our attic in ages...now a bit scared to go up there having read your link and some others! There's definitely more this year than last, hope this doesn't mean we'll be totally over-run next year :eek:

digitalphase

I feel your pain - we had a problem with cluster flies in our old house.

Around end of September they'd appear from seemingly nowhere, even with the windows shut. In fact, I even taped over all the window seals and ventilation, and they STILL found their way in.

This was the scene that greeted us early October:





It appeared to be that the flies took up residence in the loft, however when pest control came to investigate, they found bats nesting in the loft as well (house was in rural area). So nothing could be sprayed, nothing could be done, and we got out of the house as soon as we possibly could. That wasn't the only problem with the house though.

krlyr

Thank you for this post - we've had tons of flies in the house over the last few weeks and like OP, have been checking cupboards etc. for a mystery maggot-infested source. They reminded me of the dopey bluebottles we used to get in the previous house (on a farm so quite prone to mice/rats crawling into wall cavities to die) but interesting to know these cluster flies act in a similar way. Will have to get googling and find some pet-friendly remedies!

ellay864

Oh those pics make my skin crawl - it's not quite that bad here. Looking at them more closely I'm not so sure if they are cluster flies as many of them are definitely that metallic green/blue whereas everything I've read tonight says they're more brown or have markings on them. So then I started googling bluebottle infestations and that usualy is linked to something dead! I am going to pull out everything at the wekend at this rate! But cluster flies does fit more as I clear the window and then it's like they appear again by magic so they must be coming from the window frame even though there's no obvious cracks. Also bluebottles are usually buzzier and more active aren't they? These ones just kind of sit there in one place and dont move fast even we're after them

digitalphase

Yeah, I seem to remember them getting quite dopey and easy to kill after they had been in the room a day or two. This was the worse room. It was awful :eek:

whichwhydoIturn

I'm glad that I found this I've been having a major declutter these last few months in all area and came home one day from work to back bedroom window and curtains crawling with flies which were very easily killed but there were loads of them!!! :eek:
Wonder if I disturbed them when blitzing airing cupboard ?

MarilynMonroe_2

digitalphase wrote: »

I feel your pain - we had a problem with cluster flies in our old house.

Around end of September they'd appear from seemingly nowhere, even with the windows shut. In fact, I even taped over all the window seals and ventilation, and they STILL found their way in.

This was the scene that greeted us early October:





It appeared to be that the flies took up residence in the loft, however when pest control came to investigate, they found bats nesting in the loft as well (house was in rural area). So nothing could be sprayed, nothing could be done, and we got out of the house as soon as we possibly could. That wasn't the only problem with the house though.

Lordy that is alot flies.

Was the house haunted?