Little flies

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amtc

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Has anyone else got this issue about little weak flies?
I got the house cleaned professionally so I know it's not dirty. My mam's complaining about the same thing (we live near each other). Had all windows and doors open today and there are 8 of them (that I can see) congregated on the ceiling. Last week it was daddy long legs.
 
They're everywhere at the moment and I think another name for them is fruit fly. If there is any fruit in the kitchen at all they seem to hang around it. They are driving me mad too.

Not sure if I saw them mentioned on AAM in the past so if you run the search option in this forum you may be able to get more info or check them out on Google.
 
I'm having the same problem too. I read somewhere recently that it is to do with all the rain over the past few months. apparently most of them usually die within a day of birth, but because of all the rain this year they are living longer
 
I found that leaving the spiders and webs alone got rid of them. As soon as the flies were gone, the spiders moved on.
 
Recently suffered an infestation (quite literally hundreds) of these guys and they were proving very difficult to eradicate. I managed to do it in the end after much experimentation.
First thing I did was move all fruit into the fridge and away from the flies; next step was to relocate a compost bin that was a little too close to the house and finally to capture them I cut the top off a plastic bottle (Sprite/Ribena, etc.) placed some fruit in the bottom half (top stem part of bananas with a little banana attached were particularly successful).
I replaced the top of the bottle but inverted it as it acts as a kind of funnel and proves very difficult for them to escape from. I then left this on a window in the kitchen and dangled one of those sticky trap thingys that they fly into over the top of the inverted bottle top.
This worked absolutely brilliantly and cleared the house in about three days. A large number of them got trapped in the bottle and those that didn't were attracted to the smell and got stick on the dangling sticky tape.
 
I just sprayed flyspray and this killed them all. They were around the fruit and the kitchen bin.

Separately, I caught 3 large spiders in a few days using a glass and a table mat. I released them over the balcony, while her indoors ran screaming upstairs.
 
JohnJay said:
I'm having the same problem too. I read somewhere recently that it is to do with all the rain over the past few months. apparently most of them usually die within a day of birth, but because of all the rain this year they are living longer
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I think I remember hearing it was due to the dearth of bees, and their imminent extinction. I would much rather these horrid flies were to die out, but I'm sure they in turn have an important place in our ecosystem.
 
Cover a glass of water and lemon juice with cling film with a couple of holes in it. Very quick and effective and the dead flies are all in one place.
 
according to a mate who was over the other day and is into such things (now how true this is I don't know but he generally quite accurate on such matters) it's because the male little flies are trying to find the female fly and therefore are searching her out in droves as females tend to die quicker...sounds a bit improbable but he's proved me wrong before. And he has got a degree in animal biology.
 
If they are fruit flies, as well as making sure to empty the bin regularly and trying not to leave fruit lying around for too long, the following is the best method for dealing with them.

Put about an inch or so of cider vinegar in the bottom of a wide-ish glass or jar. Add a squirt of washing-up liquid. Leave somewhere near where you've been noticing the fruit flies. Come back a few hours later to drowned fruit flies. The washing-up liquid breaks the surface tension of the vinegar so they can't just land on top and have a drink.

If it's very bad you might need to replace the vinegar/washing-up liquid every day (or even a few times a day) but if things are not too bad, a few days is fine. I start doing this as soon as I notice the first ones at the beginning of summer and continue until the weather gets cold again, usually sometime in late September or early October here.

If you have a compost heap, you might also have a lot of them around there. One way to try and minimise them is to put your fruit peels into brown paper bags before adding to the compost. By the time the paper has degraded, the flies won't have been able to hatch/will be dead.
 
Thanks for the replies, but it doesn't make sense about the bin as the bin is in the kitchen and is emptied daily whilst these are around the patio doors at the back and only ever venture in as far as half that room. (kitchen and sitting room are separated by door). Anyway cold snap last night seems to have cleared it.
 
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