help - fly infestation!

[emc]

i think they are green bottle flies - all over my living room, as soon as I spray some dead, more come! Have called pest control company, going to cost over ?200 to come out tonight...anyone else with this problem??? Feel like I'm going to be sick.

[lorna63]

Have a little check around to see if some food might have been dropped some where and if so, are there any small brown oval egg shaped cocoons? If they keep appearing even after you have sprayed them, it means they are hatching out from some where, even the bin is a possibility. Keep spraying them, they will go eventually, you dont have to fork out ?200. Be brave, it will be worth it to save the call out fee :)

[Narnia]

You don't happen to have a lot of banana's lying around. Had lots of flies last summer which particularly liked banana's. Have had more though this year with the banana's under wraps and just kept spraying them whenever we saw them. Seem to have gone now. So keep spraying. You will get rid of them.

[Tarot]

Try and find a place that sells.the old type of insecticide rolls.You unwind them and the flies get stuck on the long tape, that you hang from a ceiling.

[KidKruger]

sounds like you've got something rotting and the flies are hatching from there, could there be a dead rat/bird/rodent under the floorboards ?

is there a foul smell - have a sniff around the floor ?

you can get fly paper at the DIY stores on LL or down by ED station. Once stuck on that they will never escape

those big green flies are gross aren't they !

[Mick Mac]

Yes - in a previous house we had a mouse problem, which then developed into a fly problem - so its possible its a dead mouse from some time ago that was not discovered and removed at the time.

[louisiana]

Definitely sounds like a rotting corpse.

[emc]

Hi all, well I sprayed fly killer then hoovered up bodies (cancelled pest control on advice of people on here and other friends who I phoned in hysterics) - must have been about 50 then they just stopped coming....there is no foul smell coming from anywhere though I accept they must have come from something rotting. Could it just be that maggots have hatched, flies born, I've killed them and now they're gone or could there be another lot of them coming soon?...

[ianr]

When similar happened to me, it was a dead mouse, thankfully easily found once I twigged.

The flies themselves had fairly small brains and, more or less in batches, made for and largely stayed on a large bright window. From there it was easy to deal with them.

[SteveT]

By the time they've hatched there is no smell, that comes several days earlier.

[*Tee*]

Had the same fly problem 2 years straight! it was a NIGHTMARE!! i cannot deal with anything insect-ty at all. Walked into my flat and the window was covered and there was also around 10 dead ones on the carpet. They were the big black flies which means something was rotting, but because i live in a flat conversion and basically have walls, and ceilings like paper, the dead rodent could have been anywhere, a couple of kind people on this forum offered to help as i was petrified.

went away after 2 days, with me frantically hoovering and spraying, it turns out my upstairs neighbour was living in a dustbin. He moved, problem solved!!

[dulwichmum]

Lovely emc,

Could you possibly have murdered somebody and left their rotting corpse in one of your spare bedrooms and it has just slipped your mind? Think carefully now...

[waynetta]

Shape rusty iron fillings into dog turds. When flies eat it they will be too heavy to take off and can be easily caught with a magnet and exterminated at your leisure.

[dulwichmum]

I always find it useful to spray a fly with hairspray - his little wings get stuck, and then I whack him with my Philippe Starck fly swatter. The next step must always be to fire the aupair - clearly!

[waynetta]

What a terrible waste of hairspray. Have you ever considered sending the au pair out to

Purchase a can of fly spray? Just a tip.

[HAL9000]

I find a spray of plain water knocks down most flying insects for long enough to deal with them as one's conscience dictates. I put them outside - don't like killing anything unless it's absolutely unavoidable.

[emc]

They have gone - for now. Cannot find anything rotting, smelly (ex husband's corpse not under floorboards Dulwich mum, unfortunately he is still alive and well) so have no idea what it was all about. Just so glad they're gone but dreading it happening again...

[Twirly]

Probably not relevant here, but Mr Twirly had a similar problem a few years ago before moving down south and in with me. He lived near a beach, and they were doing some work on it, moving tons of sand around - resulting in the flies being made homeless and moving in with him (and other people). Maybe there have been some sort of excavations near where you live and they've been made homeless from there?