# Why so many flies in my house?



## jayhackett03 (Sep 17, 2007)

i live in an apartment, 6 rooms wide, (A B C D E F). i live in D. its a 2 story apartment, 3 bedroom. I ALWAYS have at least 3 flies flying around the place, and i kill at least 1 a day. they're mostly on the windows. anyone have any idea why? i think its because of the cold air return vent on the bottom of the wall on 1st floor, goes directly down into the crawlspace. anyone have any other ideas? is it the weather or what?


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## Grubbster (Sep 17, 2007)

Where do you live? When I lived in Vermont that had what they called "cluster flies". They would come out when it started getting cool and hang out in the windows. I was told that they would hatch inside the house and did not come from the outside. I guess you would have to get a professional to get rid of them.


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## Illum (Sep 17, 2007)

if you don't mind spiders...introduce them into your house
aside from the webs here and there you really don't notice them.

theres at least 6 types of spiders in this house, they can scare you in the bedroom or on the sheets, thats my only grudge
when a door or a windows open we'd have mosquito issues...and fruit fly eggs carried in from out citrus produce...the flies don't last very long


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## greenlight (Sep 17, 2007)

Maybe there are cats or dogs [email protected] outside the apt and it's not getting cleaned up?


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## bitslammer (Sep 17, 2007)

jayhackett03 said:


> ...i think its because of the cold air return vent on the bottom of the wall on 1st floor, goes directly down into the crawlspace. anyone have any other ideas? is it the weather or what?




If you think that's the culprit try attaching some type of screen material and see if you still get them. I'd just use some simple window screen material and tape. If the heat/AC isn't in service then you can just use paper since the return won't be needed.


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## BIGIRON (Sep 17, 2007)

Does your return air just open into the basement or is it ducted to your air handler?? If it's open, I'd just screen it or seal it as has been suggested. 

Reminds me of a CSI episode.


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## BB (Sep 17, 2007)

I have seen problems with small moths (almost look like flies), turns out it was the old galvanized iron sewer pipes were leaking (sink water) under the apartment... Repaired and eventually replaced all of the pipes and the problem went away.

-Bill


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## Trashman (Sep 17, 2007)

Last year, we seemed to be getting an unusually large amount of flies in the house. We started hanging fly paper (the kind that comes in little rolls -- "Pic" brand) in a few places and the problem got *a lot* better. It's amazing how many flys start showing up on those rolls. On just two strips, I could probably count about a hundred flys in a just a couple of days.


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## 3rd_shift (Sep 17, 2007)

Flies are just nature's cleanup crew.
Make sure that everything in your place is clean, spic and span.
The flies will eventually die out, or manage to go somewhere else.


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## rico (Sep 17, 2007)

Any vents or crawlspaces open from the inside? Not to gross you out or anything, but I once had the chimney cover break off of the top. Birds ended up trying to nest in the chimney only to die when they couldn't fly out. We ended up with maggots crawling around the mantle/fireplace and a lot of flies. No smell oddly enough, which is why it took so long to figure out.


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## TOOCOOL (Sep 17, 2007)

Trashman said:


> Last year, we seemed to be getting an unusually large amount of flies in the house. We started hanging fly paper (the kind that comes in little rolls -- "Pic" brand) in a few places and the problem got *a lot* better. It's amazing how many flys start showing up on those rolls. On just two strips, I could probably count about a hundred flys in a just a couple of days.



+1 they work great :twothumbs


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## BIGIRON (Sep 17, 2007)

Yes, the strips are good. Also fly traps available that are kind of hanging plastic bags that have bait in them. They're filled with water and hung near the flies. Flies enter, can't leave and ultimately drown. Works very well. I've gotten them at Lowes.

Don't ask how I know about them. We don't really want to start a gross out contest, do we?


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## LEDcandle (Sep 17, 2007)

jayhackett03 said:


> i live in an apartment, 6 rooms wide, (A B C D E F). i live in D. its a 2 story apartment, 3 bedroom. I ALWAYS have at least 3 flies flying around the place, and i kill at least 1 a day. they're mostly on the windows. anyone have any idea why? i think its because of the cold air return vent on the bottom of the wall on 1st floor, goes directly down into the crawlspace. anyone have any other ideas? is it the weather or what?



Do you have a lot of nice flashlights lying around? If you do, you'll probably see me buzzing around your house too  

(sorry I couldn't help with the fly problem)


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## raggie33 (Sep 17, 2007)

go to a pond at midnight and cathc like 40 frogs and let em go inside


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## Priestly (Sep 17, 2007)

Oddly enough, I'm having the same problem only worse. 

It started last weekend (that's two weekends ago now) with a couple of the metallic green blowflies buzzing around and peaked last Sunday with probably 14 or 15.

We live in a second floor "condo" (converted apartment) and sometimes get wasps coming in through the fireplace so I split a big garbage bag and taped it over the fireplace opening and the top set of louvers, skipping the bottom set of louvers (hard to tell how the top and bottom work).

We're down to three or four a day now - just enough to keep the cats happy :laughing: - but it's still puzzling.

I haven't been on the roof to look but I'm willing to bet that's the source since we've seen no maggots. Like rico, we've had no odor from the fireplace either but the draw on these apartment-sized fireplaces is _very _strong so that isn't too surprising.


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## TedTheLed (Sep 19, 2007)

to 'get away' flies tend to fly upwards towards light, so if they just fly in open windows and doors looking for food or whatever, and there is a window inside the house that is higher up, that is in their line of sight, that's where they will all head.. that's the situation I had here, the 'way out' was a permanent junction of glass facing South. There were so many insects gathering in that corner I seriously considered drill a 'bug tunnel' through the wall just above the glass to allow them to escape -- eventually the spiders came, and presto I had an 'automatic' bug collection machine' in the corner..must be a dozen spider ball nests up there now..and no flies.


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## The_LED_Museum (Sep 19, 2007)

Go catch yourself some dragonflies, and set them loose in the house...
Presto!!! No more flies!!!


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## 3rd_shift (Sep 19, 2007)

Want to have some fun with those pests? 
Get several healthy Venus Flytrap plants.
These are native to North Carolina.
They are somewhat fussy in the home though.
They like cool mornings and mild afternoons with morning sun and afternoon shade with high humidity.
But for anyone who can grow them, they are entertaining to anyone not on thier menu.


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## Illum (Sep 19, 2007)

The_LED_Museum said:


> Go catch yourself some dragonflies, and set them loose in the house...
> Presto!!! No more flies!!!



and I thought I was odd


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## craigberesh (Sep 19, 2007)

+1 dragonflys....


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## matrixshaman (Sep 19, 2007)

The_LED_Museum said:


> Go catch yourself some dragonflies, and set them loose in the house...
> Presto!!! No more flies!!!



Not sure how you'd catch them -- not many around but does that really work? Do they leave the house without a thank you? :laughing:


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## 3rd_shift (Sep 20, 2007)

Dragonflies?
I have gotten quite a few of those on my windshield over the last month.
I had one survive though.
I pulled over to set it free as it seemed uninjured, but just too scared to let go of the windshield wiper at 70 mph. oo:

Back to the topic of flies.
They will lay eggs to make more anywhere they can.
Swat them every chance you get.

A visit to the local dollar store will often yield a good fly swatter. 

Good luck.


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