Fly problem!

October 23, 2005 3:58 PM

We have a small but persistent problem with flies in our house. Every other day we'll see one, maybe two. We can't figure it out! The house is kept very clean, there are no obscene smells such that would indicate a dead animal or something, there's no food left out. The flies are primarily in the kitchen. Any idea on a source or a solution?
posted by xmutex to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

Empty your countertops and clean with a bleach-based cleaner. That should kill off whatever bacteria is birthing them. If that doesn't do it, you might want to consider doing it in drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. Someplace, some food got spilled, and it's the source of your problem.
posted by thanotopsis at 4:05 PM on October 23, 2005

Flies don't grow from bacteria on counter tops so I doubt that's your problem. Are they fruit flies or house flies? If they're house flies or similar they're probably coming in from outside,check your yard for possible breeding sites (rotting vegetable matter, dogshit, clogged drains, dead birds etc). If they're fruit flies, welcome to the club- I hate those little bastards. I have gotten them under control at the moment by rinsing veggies and fruit as soon as I get them home, trying to store them in sealed containers and moving all the plants out of the kitchen. I finally mulched my indoor plants and that seemed to help a lot. It seems to be a lot worse when you buy organic fruit, btw.
posted by fshgrl at 4:18 PM on October 23, 2005

Put up screens in your windows and doors; kill the flies that come in your house.
posted by Citizen Premier at 4:19 PM on October 23, 2005

Electric flyswatter doesn't solve your underlying problem but it makes killing the flies (works on wasps, too) a cinch.

As for bacteria, it's a potential food-source for the flies. My parent's place is also kept pretty fastidious but there are inevitably a few flies during the summer.

Maggots feed and develop on the manure of all animals, grass clippings, decaying fruit and vegetables and garbage so there may be an underlying problem that you won't be able to fix (ie., someone else's dumpster in the alleyway, neighbours with lots of garden waste that they are lax on disposing, a school/fast-food joint nearby, &c&c.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 4:51 PM on October 23, 2005

We had that problem for awhile. We couldn't figure it out. Then we found the bag of seriously decaying potatoes hiding in the black hole that is the underside of our kitchen table.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:54 PM on October 23, 2005 [1 favorite]

If you've brought any plants in from outside for the season, there can be fly larvae in the soil that will hatch in the warmth of your house. If this is a possibility you can junk the plants, or carefully repot them in new sterile soil.
posted by zadcat at 4:54 PM on October 23, 2005

Sounds like they are sneaking in from outside, maybe a hole in a screen or something.

I leave all the lights in the house off, except for a TV or a omputer screen, and wait for them to land on the screen. You can grab them with a Kleenex or something, they can't see you coming from behind them because they're in the dark. Flush it down the toilet. Repeat as necessary.
posted by deep_cover at 5:18 PM on October 23, 2005

You may have to double-check for that hidden potato or rolled-away piece of fruit that's bringing them in, but drying out sinks and tubs after use will often decrease their presence, since they often come in to find a drink of water.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:34 PM on October 23, 2005

Occasionally, we have problems with "moth flies" (otherwise known as "drain flies". These little buggers love to hang out in showers, sinks or drains that are rarely used. Then the larvae hatch and they fly around the house. What a pain. We have to scrub out the drains when they show up. They are very distinctive looking...like this. Other flies come indicate different problems. If you can figure out what kind of flies are invading your space, it will be easier to diagnose and treat the problem.
posted by jeanmari at 6:15 PM on October 23, 2005

Probably drain flies. Pour a bottle of sulfuric acid down the drain and burn the fuckers out. You can get a bottle of something like this stuff at your nicer hardware store (usually costs about $5.00-$10.00 a bottle). Much more powerful than simple Drano. Be careful and follow the instructions to the letter. Sulfuric acid + skin = skin grafting.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:55 PM on October 23, 2005

They do nest in out-of-the-way locations. For a few weeks last year I kept finding them crawling, always, on the same windowsill. Eventually, I figured out that they had a nest of some kind in between the boards that made up the windowpanes.

Instead of killing them as soon as you see them, I suggest taking half an hour to follow one and see where it's going. I do the same for ants, and just caulk up any holes they enter through. It's less toxic than sprays and tends to work better.

But still, one or two every other day might be the best you can do. They do live outside as well, and unless you go totally agro on sealing your house, they can and will be attracted to you, your food, your kitchen, your bathroom, even.
posted by scarabic at 11:52 PM on October 23, 2005

Oh, and definitely read this previous AskMe.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:25 AM on October 24, 2005

Thanks to a previous AskMe, I found that those disgusting fly strips work. I had a bunch of flies in the kitchen and the strips only caught a few, but the rest vanished. It was as if the sight of a few caught flies scared away all the rest.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:08 AM on October 25, 2005