House flies!

playlister82

Every summer for the past few years I have had a problem with house flies in my flat. I keep all the windows and doors closed, keep everything spotlessly clean, take out the rubbish every day, and still they seem to appear, about one or two a day. These are definitely house flies and not drain flies or any other kind.

Recently I asked google for help and it suggested checking the drip tray behind the fridge for organic sludge where they might be breeding. I did this and lo and behold there was a build up of what can only be described as sludge, presumably from years of organic matter dripping out of the back of the fridge (as it's designed to do, I found out). I cleaned this out with bleach, and for about ten days up to now, I saw no flies in the flat. Hallelujah! Except today, they've come back and I've seen two back to back this afternoon.

I'm at the end of my tether and don't know what to do. Google suggests it's nothing to worry about and they're probably coming from outside, through an air vent or something. I've been seeing them so frequently for months now it's honestly driving me up the wall. There is nothing I hate more in life than flies.

Does anyone know where else flies might come from? I've checked, there are no other areas of wet organic matter around that I can find, nor are there any dead animals under the floorboards (I'm sure of this last point because the low but steady number of flies I see - one to two a day - isn't enough to support this theory).

Woodstok2000

Get yourself some of these bad boys. Not the easiest plants to grow, but great at keeping the flies at bay! Ours ate a wasp last week too.

BridgetTheCat

Get some spiders in. Flies are their favourite food.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82118561#Comment_82118561

And then get a bird to catch the spider

And a cat to catch the bird

And a dog to catch the cat

And a cow to catch the dog

Don't bother with the horse to catch the cow.

😉

fatbelly

Are you underneath a roof space? I have had problems with flies in the loft finding their way into the main house.

Lorian

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82118661#Comment_82118661

That's often cluster flies in the autumn, there are a couple of threads on here about how to deal with them