Flies in the house

Jonnyr

Hi my first post here.

Over the last few days my house has been full of little flies. Having looked online i think they are green bottle flies so may be attracted to a dead animal somewhere. We have noticed a lot of birds on the chimney so are expecting it to be a dead bird in the chin.

I have took off the skirting board round the chimney breast and can see flies now and again coming from there, so have found the source.

The issue is we have boxed off our fire and it is all plastered over. Can we get the chimney swept from the top or will we have to remove the plaster and go up?

Also the flies I have seen come out from here seem to be coming from under the floorboards, so once I get rid of the dead animal (suspected) can I set off one of those bomb things that will kill the remaining Flies? If this is ok, will the dead flies under the floorboards attract new flies?

I'm hoping not as I don't want to have to pull up the flooring to get under the floorboards.

Thabknyiu for any help you can give.

Jonesya

I think normally you wouldn't completely block a chimney at the bottom if the top is still open, you'd normally have an air vent to allow some circulation to prevent damp and access in event of any problems.

If it's just boarded over with plasterboard could you cut a square opening, remove this problem of the dead bird and fit a vent cover over it.

If you shop around you can get some nice wooden vent covers that look smart.

Jonnyr

Thank you for the reply.

I'm not sure how they done the bottom of the chimney but there is now an alcove there instead of the fire if that makes sense. I suppose I could take the plaster away and pull that out to get to the bottom of the chimney. What about the flies that are now under the floorboards? If I kill those would they attract new ones?

Strider590

Do you have plants in the house? When you say "little" i'm thinking they could be "mold flies" or "fungus gnats", in which case it's usually overwatered plants.

On the other hand if it's blue/green bottle flies, then all you can do is open the windows, keep spraying fly spray and ride it out. I get the damn things in my garage every year, the maggots migrate from my neighbours damaged bin, climb into my garage and then find a home under virtually every item on the floor (seeking out darkness), literally hundreds of them.

Jonnyr

Hi,

No we have no plants in the house. I'm pretty certain they are green bottle flies.

Do you know the best place to get the bomb spray things that kills them all?