House flies

Instead of complaining about all the rain we're getting, should we all switch to complaining about how HOT it is?

Warmer temperatures speed up development time of insects.  This means that they can reproduce and offspring reach adulthood faster allowing them to produce their offspring  which will reach adulthood rapidly and so on.  Do you see how this can cause pest problems?

The insect I'm focusing on today is the house fly. Why this particular insect?  Well, they are the ones that currently drive me crazy when I'm making dinner.  Having them buzzing around while I'm prepping food isn't ideal.  And please don't tell me about hanging bags of water....it doesn't work.  My fly problems are further compounded because my lab chases them around the house without regard to where she is going, so she is jumping around, banging into everything, snapping at them with her jaws.  It's amusing until she plows into you.

So since we all pretty much know what a housefly looks like, I'll skip to the nitty-gritty....what to do about them in your house.  For the adults, it's really best to get a fly swatter or something similar to smack them with (good old fashioned mechanical control!).  I get rather obsessive about stalking flies around my house which is now much more difficult since the dog is trying to "help".  There are also things such as fly strips which can physically trap the adults, but be aware that you will have a strip of dead or struggling flies dangling in your house.

The best way to deal with house flies is to locate possible sources where the maggots (baby flies or larvae) are developing.  This is going to most likely be associated with some sort of organic matter.  I, personally, am going to clean out my garbage and recycling cans of all the funk that has accumulated (not the actual garbage or recyclables, but the stuff that leaks out into the bottom). The other thing that I need to do is get on a more regular schedule of picking up the dog waste in the backyard and throwing it away.  I usually do that once per week, but I need to double up now that it's warmer.  Of course, I'm not going to be able to get rid of ALL the house flies, so I will keep my fly swatter (and dog) nearby.

The flies are everywhere!

Blow fly.

Have you been dealing with as many flies at your house this month as I have?  Whenever I'm cooking there seems to be that ONE FLY that is buzzing around driving me crazy.  I grab the flyswatter and slowly stalk around the kitchen trying to hunt it down.  Sometimes I'm fortunate enough to smack it down out of the air and smash it on the floor.  Most times I whizz the swatter through the air and completely miss which, after about 15 minutes of obsessing over the ONE FLY, really enrages me.

I've been dealing mostly with blow flies, but I've also seen some house flies and this week I had two outbreaks of fruit flies- one in the kitchen and one in the boy's bathroom (we'll come back to this).  I also had the pleasure of discovering maggots all over the garbage can last week when I took out the garbage one morning.  Apparently, something yummy was thrown out and the flies went crazy. The garbage can was sprayed with some pesticide and when I checked on the maggots that evening they were dead.  The fruit flies in the kitchen were coming from and over-ripe pineapple that I had left on the counter; it's now in the refrigerator until I can cut it up.  The fruit flies in the boy's bathroom were a bit perplexing until he told me he threw away an apple core in his garbage.

A glueboard from a fly light I have by the backdoor.

Yes, it's that time of year when fly populations go crazy.  With hot weather, fly life cycles speed up and the population can grow very quickly.  Adults can be killed fairly easy with things like fly swatters.  Some people like to use fly paper or water traps (the fly traps need to be the actual traps that have the stinky pheromone lure, not just a ziptop baggie filled with water), but if you choose to use them place away from doors or areas where you spend your time.

The best way to manage fly populations is to manage the source- where they are coming from.  Some ideas to help reduce flies at your house:

• take garbage & recycling out on a regular basis
• clean garbage & recycling bins every few weeks
• pick up any animal waste and dispose of it several times per week
• remove any dead/ decaying animals from the area
• place fruit in a paper bag to ripen