Fly Infestation

[Laura_E]

Yesterday a fly flew in through the back door when I opened it to let the cats out. I managed to shoo it out again, shut the door and went off to work. When I came in last night there was another one sitting on the curtain. I didn't think much of it, shooed it out with the newspaper and continued with the Wednesday night ritual of sorting out the rubbish and recycling. Once I had finished that I sat down to watch the tv and noticed another fly on the ceiling light. I have to confess, by this stage I had lost my patience and squashed it. I cleaned it up and stuck it out with the rest of the rubbish. Sat down again and an hour later there was another one buzzing around. So that was also disposed of. I then repeated this process THREE more times before going to bed.

 

This morning I got up and low and behold, there was another one sitting on the curtain. So I killed it and went off to work. Then whilst I was in my meeting I noticed something on my boot, and I am pretty sure it was a maggot! Of course it might not have been, but it looked like a very small one. I was horrified. I got back from work this afternoon and yet again, there was another fly on the curtain. I killed it and sat down to do some work. I have been sitting at the laptop for four hours now and have had to kill and dispose of another three flies (I feel like such a hypocrite with being into animal rights and things, but they literally make my skin crawl).

 

I have had a good look around the room to see if there is any sign of a nest, or whatever, but I can't find anything. I am quite obsessive when it comes to cleaning, so it's not like I live in the type of environment that would attract flies, but I can't think of any explanation as to why there are so many of them. They only seem to be coming out one at a time and are quite large, so I don't think they've just 'hatched'. Not that I know much about flies other than the fact that I hate them and the thought of them flying around in my house makes me sick!

 

Has anyone got any advice, please, for my sanity?!!!!

[Laura_E]

I forgot to add, something else that I have found quite worrying and upsetting is the way that Tess has reacted every time I pick up a magazine to swot the flies. Last night she was scratching furiously at the front door to be let out. When I went to find her she was hiding under my bed. Then she wouldn't come in from the garden when she saw me swot one in the kitchen. When she did eventually come in she had her tail between her legs. I've always liked to think that she knew I would never do anything to hurt her, but she's obviously had some sort of bad experience in the past.

[blackmagic]

It does sound like they are hatching out somewhere.

 

Have you put your heating on, so the house is warmer?

 

We sometimes get one or two when the sun has been shining in the window. The heat must bring them out.

 

We did have a similar situation to yours but it was bluebottles. I eventually noticed they were appearing at the blocked up fireplace first. We pulled off the boarding and that was where they were.

 

A long skoosh of fly spray up the chimney got rid of them.

[collies r best]

Cant remember if you have cats as one of mine caught a mouse let it go in house where it curled up and died under the armchair. Once i traced the slight odd whiff there were maggots

[Laura_E]

Cant remember if you have cats as one of mine caught a mouse let it go in house where it curled up and died under the armchair. Once i traced the slight odd whiff there were maggots

 

Yes I do have cats, but they are too lazy to catch anything (thankfully). In the whole five years that I have had them I have only had to deal with one bird, which was luckily unharmed and taken to the bird sanctuary up the road. Plus they don't have a cat flap so I let them in and out and would know if they have bought anything in. It's a good job really as I don't think I could handle it!

 

I have had the heating on for the last couple of days, so that may have attracted them. It's possible that something may have died in the chimney, but I am too scared to look! I can't smell anything suspicious, but it's possible. I haven't seen one in the last four hours, but that doesn't mean much. It just worried me that they will land on the cats food, and the kitchen surfaces.

 

I will try blasting some fly spray in the fire place. Does it have an adverse effects on cats and dogs?

[Spins4me]

I will try blasting some fly spray in the fire place. Does it have an adverse effects on cats and dogs?

 

I'm not sure about adverse effects on cats and dogs but if I were you I'd keep your animals out of the room while you spray and for a good while afterwards.

 

Hope you get rid of them (the flies.)

[smirnoff]

This happened to me when I bought my house. I put the heating on and it was suddenly warm enough to hatch eggs which had been lurking somewhere. I won't go into details but, trust me, it was a million times worse than your infestation. And I've had the "dead mouse hatching out" incident too. Yuk. Revolting.

 

It only takes one fly to lay eggs and you can end up with literally hundreds of the little horrors once the circumstances are right to hatch them. I keep the animals (and people) out of the room if I use fly spray. You never know what that stuff will do to skin and lungs.

 

Hope you get rid of them. Quite agree - it's a horrible experience.

[celeste]

I also get sporadic bluebottle infestations, I think in my case it's dead birds in the walls that are causing the problem, we have an old house and before we moved in and rectified the problem, birds were nesting in the wall cavity, they would get in through small gaps in the wooden boards above the windows. I used to be able to hear them cheeping away. I'm guessing some would die and get fly eggs layed in them. Not much I can do without ripping the house apart so I just kill the fly's when I see them ( I'm a bit obsessive about flys, can't bare one to be in the room). Could a similar thing have happened in your house ?, it's surprising where birds will nest, they can get into teeny gaps so you might not even be aware of them. I'm expecting a new infestation soon as darling Daisy has hidden a lamb bone somewhere and I can't find it , I'll just have to wait till it starts to pong

[Laura_E]

I'm in a terraced house so don't think anything could get into the wall cavities. I do have a fireplace in the living room and in my bedroom though, so something could have got in there.

 

Last night I sprayed the entire living room with Raid and gave the windows and fireplace a really good blast. But since getting up this morning I have already had to get rid of two more. I'm just very aware that they breed at alarming rates and don't want to end up with swarms of them. I really, really hate flies with a passion so this is my worst nightmare- I've even started imagining them now!

[griff]

do you have an airbrick? we had wasps come through there. we temporarily covered it and it was o.k hope you get it sorted... i don't like flies either!

[celeste]

I'm in a terraced house so don't think anything could get into the wall cavities. I do have a fireplace in the living room and in my bedroom though, so something could have got in there.

 

Last night I sprayed the entire living room with Raid and gave the windows and fireplace a really good blast. But since getting up this morning I have already had to get rid of two more. I'm just very aware that they breed at alarming rates and don't want to end up with swarms of them. I really, really hate flies with a passion so this is my worst nightmare- I've even started imagining them now!

 

 

It shouldn't get too out of hand at this time of year, have you tried those things you stick on the window ? those work pretty well, the fly just has to walk over them for it to kill them. I also found out by accident that if you spray the window ( it does make a bit of a mess ) it will work the same way as the stickers for a while I use Vapona. If it gets too bad you could always get a pest control type person in.

 

 

[GoldenOldie]

I've had the same problem on and off for weeks now since my neighbours did some renovation work on their house. I'm absolutely paranoid about cleaning up the dogs and cats dishes and can't imagine how many cans of RAID I've used in the house and up the chimney It's a bit like the endings of those old b rated horror movies (for those who can remember them!) - just when you think the monsters are all dead there's always one left!

 

My daughter had a similar problem earlier in the summer and chased one persistent bluebottle into the kitchen without thinking, giving it a good blast of RAID,and then had to spend ages washing down the work surfaces and her saucepans which are on a hanging rack! She got the fly.

[merledogs]

I've had more flies than usual recently as well. Handy that I have two dogs that eat flies so they don't last long in the living room.

 

If they are in the bedroom I have to swat them cos Timmy is scared of them Taffy does point them out to me by staring intently so they are quite easy to find.

 

I can lend you my little helpers if you like

[Trallwm farm]

We had a session of them in one room untill I discovered they were coming through a window frame which hadnt been shut properly.

The starting point was a birds nest right outside the window.