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

Fruit Flies

You would think that since hubby and I are both entomologists that we would have a bug-free home, right? Wrong! We currently have fruit flies flying around in the kitchen. I know what they are and where they're coming from which are the biggest mysteries to solve when you have problems with small flies, so I'm well on my way to getting rid of them. We compost our kitchen scraps and the bin has gotten a bit ripe (and full), so I need to dump it into the compost pile outside and wash out the container.

Fruit flies can become a problem at any time of year because they are attracted to ripe or fermenting fruit. You can also be lucky and bring fruit flies home with you from the store sometimes. I'm sure that you've been grocery shopping and see tiny flies fluttering near the bananas or tomatoes.

So how do you tell fruit flies from other small flies you may find in your house? Adults are small (about 1/8 of an inch) and usually have red eyes. The front portion of the body is tan while the back portion is dark brown or black. If given the opportunity, females can lay up to 500 eggs. Larvae feed near the surface of fermenting foods or other organic matter.

Prevention is the best way to deal with fruit flies. Do not purchase over ripened fruit or vegetables. Fruit and vegetables should be eaten in a timely manner or stored in the refrigerator. If storage in the refrigerator is not an option because you are ripening the item, place it in a paper bag and use a clothespin or chip clip to close the bag. All recyclables should be rinsed thoroughly before placing them into the recycling bin. The recycling bin and garbage can (and compost bin!) should be cleaned out on a regular basis to eliminate any material that would attract the flies.

To eliminate a fruit fly infestation, all sources must be located and eliminated. Insecticides will not help if you do not get rid of where the flies are breeding. While searching and eliminating the source (breeding area), a trap can be constructed to capture adult flies. Create a paper funnel by rolling a piece of paper and securing it with a piece of tape. Place the funnel into a jar that contains a small amount of apple cider vinegar in the bottom. Instructables has a how-to on this process (but skip the hot glue gun & go for tape instead).

Photo of trap from Instructables.com.