UKC

Hello peeps,

Why would I suddenly have lots of flies in my kitchen? I've checked for the plausible causes to do with gone off food or anything which needs cleaning - that kind of thing, and there's nothing like that around where the flies are, and nothing ponging or sticky.

What's the best way to get rid of them?

Thanks.
Tim

In reply to Timmd:

What sort of fly are they? I've had similar issues twice - once was a seemingly endless lot of fruit flies in spite of checking fruit bowl, compost being emptied, nothing under sofa etc. - finally tracked it down to a rarely used rucksack with a nicely fermenting orange in it. Another time was big horrible bluebottle type flies - that were being spawned off a mouse carcass that the cats had obviously brought in and allowed to crawl under some furniture...

In reply to Timmd:

I seem to have the same problem in one of my rooms. Small black things.

In reply to Timmd:




I'm weird and don't like to kill anything even flies but if you must just get the hover out with just the nossle and suck them out the air. Better than the spray poison.

In reply to Timmd:




My mother (and every other resident for miles) had a similar problem some months ago. It was horrendous .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-36380301

It was caused by a local recycling firm not cleaning their site and taking in dodgy rubbish.
We found the only thing to use was fly paper, however so did the other residents so the shops soon ran out.
Have you ever seen fly paper used as currency ?




TS

In reply to Timmd:

Do the flies resemble very slow moving house-flies? For the last month, my office has been infested with "cluster flies" or "attic flies" - they are reportedly harmless (don't filth-up food etc) and normally live in undisturbed spaces - attics, cavities etc. We started getting them after some roof / ceiling works to change our air-con.

In reply to Timmd:

When the opening button fell off our kitchen bin, it gave the flies a handy entrance to the stuff inside. This caused them to lay eggs and so on. Some time later a load of flies came out of it. You may have a similar situation. We've since bought a new bin and all good so far...

In reply to Timmd:

Dead thing in the chimney??

In reply to Mark Collins:
The bin seems like a good place to start, on opening it some have flown out every so often, with it being a pedal bin.

They're quite slow moving small ones, rather than the ones you might find on dog dirt - fruit flies possibly, they're only a few mm in size.

They hover and are quite easy to catch with an open hand.

In reply to Timmd:

Body under the floor has started to rot.

In reply to Timmd:


Pour honey all over your neighbour's house and garden

In reply to Timmd:

How old is the house? If it's pre-war (1930s or older) I've often found that you get cluster flies breeding in the roof space, and under the floor boards. Have you recently turned on your central heating, because that can often trigger them into emerging from the roof space and similar nooks and crannies?

In reply to Timmd:

What's the best way to get rid of them?

Get some spiders ?

In reply to Timmd:

I would guess they are cluster flies, as already mentioned, no harm. This time of year they come inside to hibernate, they started in our bedroom yesterday, same as every autumn. All day in the sun they come to the warmth of the bedroom windows and look for a way in, then when we go to bed and turn the lights on dozens of the sods begin buzzing about the room.....causing my wife to run about the bedroom naked with a fly swot. Not a pretty sight, or thought

In reply to Wsdconst:

If it's fruit flies (the small ones) that are the problem you can make a simple trap for them.

Put some cider vinegar in a bowl (perhaps with some bits of fruit too) and cover it tightly with some cling film. A container where you can secure the cling film with a rubber band is good. Make some holes in the cling film and they will tend to get trapped in there.

Hole size and density affects the outcome. The hole should be bigger than the flies (!), perhaps 2cm between holes, not more I would say. Generally I've found they still have some trouble to get inside but once in they stay. Ok, it's not like I tagged them, but I came to this impression. At least it concentrates them in one place, and after a few hours, or overnight, you can choose what further method (or methods) you would like to apply in order to finally dispose of them.

Videos on youtube.

In reply to Timmd:

Fruit flies are reddish in colour and very distinctive. We get them in the kitchen when we've forgotten to empty the worktop compost bin.

In reply to Timmd:

sounds familiar; do you have pot(ed)plants in the house?
I had in infestation of these typathings - they were living in the soil of a plant in the kitchen.
The remainder of the soil in the soil-bag was totally infested - looks like they (or the eggs) came with the bag.
binned the offending plants etc.

In reply to Timmd:

Depends on the species. Any more detailed description? Most likely candidates have been named, Calliphorids (blow flies) --> dead animal, Drosophilids (fruit flies) --> rotting fruit, Fanniids and Polleniinae (cluster flies) --> not much you can do, they are just looking for a warm dry place, Thysanurans (actually not flies at all) --> plant soil...

Other options available....

CB

In reply to Timmd:


Pull up the floorboards get granny out and bury her under your 'new' patio.

In reply to Timmd:

If they're in large numbers, at this time of year it's most likely they're cluster flies. Have you got a three storey house, as they seem to be attracted to them? They tend to return year on year, so you might have the same next year. They're a pain in the arse but harmless I think.

In reply to Timmd:


Spray bottle, washing up liquid and water. Once sufficiently sprayed they cannot fly then you stand on them or squish with a tissue.

Allow a few spiders to flourish, I have a real nice one in the corner of my kitchen window. It's been there for a couple of months and I often see it wrapping a fly up for later. Nature's own Insectocuter!

In reply to That Shallot:
We get the same horrid small flies . The things that dont die when sprayed several times, and we go round with a fly swat and use fly papers., but they bite and it hurts. We get them after the farmer puts "muck" on the adjoining field!!1

In reply to Timmd:

I recently bought something called a Flygun for about £2.50 off the internet. It's great fun and quite effective once you learn exactly how to use it. Only kills one at a time though.

In reply to Timmd:
It's turned out to be a hidden banana which had gone black and squashy, hopefully a mixture of cold from leaving a window open today and some smoke from my wood burning stove will send them off, they've seemingly vanished now at any rate.

Ta for the suggestions peeps.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Is the first year it's happened, hopefully it's just the banana that's attracted them, it is 3 bed, a late 1800s/early 1900s terraced house I think. No older than the 1800's I wouldn't have thought.

In reply to Timmd:

For fruit flies just leave 10mm of beer in your bottle / can and it will suck "em in

In reply to Timmd:

Mrs Num Num moved in next door?

In reply to Timmd:

Not cluster flies then - be easier to resolve)