I don’t leave food out. Garbage gets tossed, counters are cleaned. I replaced half the windows in my home and caulked up the rest. I bought a salt gun and have been picking them off but there’s always more.
How do I figure out where these little fuckers are getting in?
They come in through the door when you do. That’s the only thing I can figure out, I have the same problem. I’ve caught them doing it a couple of times, but of course I don’t see them every time.
I think you’re doing everything you can to keep them out. Unless, you want to build some sort of airlock contraption. Make it with smooth, white walls, a bright light, and a fly swatter. But, the thing is, even then, a few would sneak through, and that would absolutely drive you mad after going through all that effort.
Some places use a directed air blast at the door whenever it opens up. Enough to push any bugs away from opening the door.
In a residential home?
Air curtains.
I’m not so sure! Unless they’re laying eggs inside, there’s simply too many of them for that. My dog hates going out in this weather so it’s not like I’m even using the door that much
Clean up the dog shit in your yard if you don’t regularly. That’s likely part of the issue. Also these fly traps work great (we have dogs and chickens).
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For me it is in the hottest months and its in the recycling. The recycling bins are not as contained as the general bins, residual food is in the recycling from improper washing. Lone fly in through an open door and lays eggs in recycling, in normal times process from egg hatching to maggots to flies takes longer than the recycling collection period so it is all thrown out. Under very hot conditions it is accelerated and you wake up to 10 newly hatched flies on the inside of your garden door every morning. Solution is when it’s very hot put the recycling out more often even if it attracts foxes. This is very specific to me but something similar may be happening for you, I don’t think flies squeeze through small gaps.
Hmmmm I’ll try giving the bins a wash. I’m very particular about recycling being clean but I hadn’t considered they were coming in through the garage either…
However meticulous you are about washing recycling still enough organic material might be left for a fly to consider it a viable site to lay eggs. Also washing can sometimes work against you because putting things in the recycling wet can allow a licour to form over time that will smell as bad as anything you have smelled. Wash and disinfect the bins and in the hottest months put them outside. Do you note there is a limited age distribution in the fly populations you see, they are all young adults and all clean and shiny as if they have never been outside.
This guy flies.
Supplement your offensive salt gun strategy with spiders.
I have several spider friends in my plant room helping with the bugs but I can’t convince them to expand their hunting grounds
Are you sure they’re not laying eggs in the soil? A whole plant room sounds like a massive breeding ground.
You could recreate the experiments of Jan Baptist van Helmont to determine if your house is the one place on Earth where life spontaneously generates from inanimate matter.
Brb grabbing some steaks
If you’ve got screens, check that they’re in the correct position. I had a sliding screen patio door get knocked off the bottom track, and the gap was wide enough for wasps to get through
The mentioning of a salt gun just sent me down a rabbit hole…
And this below must be the most US thing I have seen in quite a while! 😆
Also found a fantastic direct translation with hilarious WTF-factor on the page (for anyone speaking German):
They’re incredible and by far the best bug killing method I’ve ever used. They don’t move when you’re pointing it at them from a meter away and the salt usually just rattles them to death so you aren’t picking up bug pieces. Sometimes it vaporizes them, though lol
Don’t make the same mistake I did and shoot it near a house plant, though.
Care to translate that German for us lesser people?
Yes, looks effective!
When young, I had a blowpipe shooting sucker cup darts.
Most effective mosquito hunting device I ever owned. But left a mess of the target and was slightly cross to re-use the darts ;-)I will give translating a try, but guess some of the silly punch will get lost in translation:
“Will the salt squirt [on] the beetle?
No, the beetle stays complete for an easy cleaning”(Where “bespritzen” may also be used as a colloquial term for ejaculating on someone or something and is in general only used for liquids)
That’s pretty funny. Even funnier that it’s saying almost exactly what I said!
Yes, after thinking about it for a few seconds it becomes clear what they are trying to say.
The direct 1-to-1 translation to German is just really bad and funny sounding :-)
What salt gun do you use? I’ve never heard of them and now I’m intrigued
The original Bug-A-Salt. I did some research and the knockoffs are nowhere near as good. And I sure as hell didn’t want the one with CO cartridges.
I don’t work for them but it was worth every penny. I know 2 other people with them and they say the same.
I can almost hear the grinding noise this will make when you step on it inside the house. Or the nasty feeling of salt in your socks.
It uses a minuscule amount of salt. Actually works better than a swatter or the electric one. The form factor is a bit silly, but it gets the job done.
I keep a hash mark count on mine.
They were laying eggs in the window sill at my apartment. They wouldn’t stop and we didn’t realize.
There’s numerous other places, holes in screens of windows, of bathroom exhaust, dryer exhaust. Most annoying might be central heating if you have.
I thought it was the window sills of my old windows, hence the landlord special (I used removable caulk at least) but I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere else because it just hasn’t stopped!
Start by identifying the fly. Habitats very by species.
Could be something died in your chimney, could be drain flies, could be vents. Could be doors or crawlspaces. Doesn’t take much.
What kind of flies? House flies or fruit flies?
Big ol house flies. I’ve got separate problems with gnats but that’s mostly under control
Get those sticky paper strips. You might have to wait a few generations, but after they “hatch” they don’t immediately reproduce, but instead look for food first. That’s the small window where you have to get them.
Importantly, you have to keep the strips up at least 1 “cycle” after you’ve caught the last fly!dead animal in your walls or similar.
they will go away eventually. once the food source does.
just kill them.
And recommendations on what animal to use?
Need more info.
Do you live somewhere that has lots of bugs (Like a high humidity place, lots of plant life outside) or in a dry climate?
In an area with lots of bug life it’s hard to completely keep them out - your house is like a sieve and you have a high “bug load”. So investigate gaps in window frames, screens, etc.
In a place with few bugs (say US southwest), you’re just playing odds and aren’t likely to get many anyway.
Someone else mentioned they’re probably coming in with you through the open door - in my experience that’s the “big gap” (haha) that’s hard to reduce.
I’m in the Midwest US, though I don’t think it’s super relevant. I’m more wondering if there’s a way to identify gaps that I’m unaware of. My plan B is to have my friend bring his thermal camera to scan the walls
Have you checked your attic? I was just reading about cluster flies, and… it looks disturbing but at least they don’t carry disease. They lay eggs in earthworms and sometimes adult flies congregate in attics.
Oh…no…no I have not checked my attic. God I hope it’s not the attic, it sucks up there lol
Actually, depending what the flies actually do inside that might indeed be relevant.
I live in the Midwest and I get these flies called cluster flies. They usually only come in in the fall when looking for somewhere warm to overwinter, but I’ve had them other times as well.
They aren’t like houseflies in that they wont really reproduce inside the house, they mostly hang out near windows. I wait for a lot of them to build up on the screen, close the window most of the way, crack the screen open a bit (storm window) and go outside to open the rest of the way.
But once everything is closed up for the year, any left behind just die.
If those are what you’ve got, you probably wont be able to stop them getting in without completely ruining the insulation and humidity profile of your place, especially if its an older place which aren’t neatly as airtight as newer ones. They will get in through any ducts going outside, cracks under your siding that aren’t sealed, you name it.
Best you can do is get rid of them when you get them.
If you’ve ruled out the kitchen and bathroom, try exterminating in one room, closing it off for a couple of days, then opening it up. If you see more that’s likely a source…
Unfortunately I’m in a split level so there’s no doors between the kitchen, dining room, living room, foyer, and basement :(
Fly strip in each room and see where there are more?
Bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans might be an entry point, especially if some critter crawled into the duct and died.
This is where I’m leaning now - my stove exhaust is broken, too. Maybe it broke when something crawled in and died…
The windows I didn’t replace are all jacked up - including the screens. That’s where I assumed it they were getting in which is why I caulked them closed. I guess at least that’ll save me on heating and cooling…
