Flies in accommodation

Utah

Weird one.
Apologies if in the wrong forum.

Yesterday I came home for work and there were 9 bluebottles in my apartment. I disposed of them. Went out for a bit. Came home, 4 more. Disposed of them. Went to bed. Woke up. I think I counted 7 before I left for work this morning.

- I looked in, changed and cleaned the bins, no flies
- The vents have a mesh so they can't get in that way
- I checked the fridge and fruit, nothing
- We don't leave windows open as we're on the ground floor
- Checked all obvious places, nothing

Where the hell are they coming from?!

otwb1

Did you check under the bin etc? sounds like they have laid eggs somewhere. Lots of flyspray while you're trying to find the eggs/maggots... eggs look slightly like mouse droppings.

Utah

otwb1 wrote: »

Did you check under the bin etc? sounds like they have laid eggs somewhere. Lots of flyspray while you're trying to find the eggs/maggots... eggs look slightly like mouse droppings.

Yeah it's only a small bin so easy to check.


Would they lay the eggs anywhere? Like it doesn't need to be on food?

Ms Doubtfire1

anything thats rotting, can be tiny.dead mouse somewhere in the vents?

ManofStan

Utah wrote: »

Weird one.
Apologies if in the wrong forum.

Yesterday I came home for work and there were 9 bluebottles in my apartment. I disposed of them. Went out for a bit. Came home, 4 more. Disposed of them. Went to bed. Woke up. I think I counted 7 before I left for work this morning.

- I looked in, changed and cleaned the bins, no flies
- The vents have a mesh so they can't get in that way
- I checked the fridge and fruit, nothing
- We don't leave windows open as we're on the ground floor
- Checked all obvious places, nothing

Where the hell are they coming from?!

It's the curse! The curse of the blue bottle. Seriously, google it folks. Good luck mate- you're gon need it.

ManofStan

Seriously, though, I've got like a billion food flies in my pad and its driving me nuts! Any suggestions of a repellant I could use of the things would be great.

Ps. Sorry bud, not trying to hijack your thread.

Cheers.

orionm_73

ManofStan wrote: »

Seriously, though, I've got like a billion food flies in my pad and its driving me nuts! Any suggestions of a repellant I could use of the things would be great.

Ps. Sorry bud, not trying to hijack your thread.

Cheers.

You'll need to give your kitchen a really good clean. Then make sure there is no food left out (eg fruit or veg). Bin any cut flowers. Basically anything that fruit flies like to feed on. Then fill a jar with malt vinegar, add a few dashes of washing up liquid. Leave it out overnight. If there is no other food source available they will be attracted to the vinegar, and drown in it. It's pretty gruesome especially if you have a huge number of them. But repeat it until the flies are gone.

Duvetdays

Are you sure a mouse couldn't have died under the floorboards?
We weren't in our house long hadn't fully put down skirting boards and flooring so there was plenty of gaps. We went on holidays for 9days and when we came back the house was crawling with hundreds and hundreds of blue bottles. You couldn't stand in the house for they were literally flying into your face. It was 1am and we were going around hoovering as many up as we could. Thankfully we had closed our bedroom door and there was only 2 I think got in there. We had to spend all the next day scrubbing the house after them and they'd destroyed everywhere with fly poop.

makeandcreate

I just to get loads of them in the spare room despite it being empty and they were always sort of dopey and half dead. They were coming in from the loft space. The place was full of the things despite no food sources. Same in a place I worked in, the attic was always full of them.

bungaro79

could be cluster flies. ;ast year had an infestation upstairs for around a week. no idea where they came from but someone suggested they had laid eggs in the vents outside the window. sprayed around there and it did seem to make a difference

Estrellita

Utah wrote: »

Weird one.
Apologies if in the wrong forum.

Yesterday I came home for work and there were 9 bluebottles in my apartment. I disposed of them. Went out for a bit. Came home, 4 more. Disposed of them. Went to bed. Woke up. I think I counted 7 before I left for work this morning.

- I looked in, changed and cleaned the bins, no flies
- The vents have a mesh so they can't get in that way
- I checked the fridge and fruit, nothing
- We don't leave windows open as we're on the ground floor
- Checked all obvious places, nothing

Where the hell are they coming from?!

I thought dead mouse first, but I think it's worth knocking into your neighbours and asking if they have a similar problem. If it's a recent enough problem it could be someone away on holiday and forgot to leave out their rubbish before they left.

Another thought was maybe someone in a surrounding apartments mightn't be cleaning it / hoarding. I suppose it could be any amount of things going on, but do get to the bottom of it.

Nothing freaks me out more than a fly in the house, from fruit flies to blue bottles. I avoid leaving food out and bleach and disinfect counters and the table like my life depends on it.

Some light reading.

runawaybishop

Utah wrote: »

Weird one.
Apologies if in the wrong forum.

Yesterday I came home for work and there were 9 bluebottles in my apartment. I disposed of them. Went out for a bit. Came home, 4 more. Disposed of them. Went to bed. Woke up. I think I counted 7 before I left for work this morning.

- I looked in, changed and cleaned the bins, no flies
- The vents have a mesh so they can't get in that way
- I checked the fridge and fruit, nothing
- We don't leave windows open as we're on the ground floor
- Checked all obvious places, nothing

Where the hell are they coming from?!

Attic above you? They tend to lay there.

Estrellita

runawaybishop wrote: »

Attic above you? They tend to lay there.

Ground floor apartment. Thats why I figured if it wasn't a mouse it might be above apartment or surrounding ones.

I'd be keeping a keen eye on the room that has the most flies in it. Watch vents, skirtings and anywhere without holes filled, such as around radiator pipes. If you rarely have windows open, they are getting in through some hole or crevice. Sit in the worst room quietly, no TV or sound and see if you can track where they come in. Well, that's what I'd be doing.

FortySeven

Came home after a week away with a few hundred bluebottles against my kitchen and dining room windows. Half a steak in the bin, full of maggots. Bluh!

One or two stragglers left a day later.

Kovu

Had a similar issue recently, we isolated the problem to the kitchen but still couldn't find understand where they were getting in.
Wasn't until I was sitting and staring into space while on fly duty with the swatter that I seen a fly crawl out between the doors of the press under the sink. Looked in and they were crawling up from the space behind the plumbing. So taped it all up after unloading a can of deodorant down the cracks ( I had no fly spray to hand) and they all disappeared after that!