Kitchen Flies

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I found a thread on fruit flies.  Though fruit flies are always with us, these flies are not fruit flies.

 

Three days ago I saw a fly.  A fly in my kitchen.  Now I have a plague of biblical proportions.  In the last two days I have killed fully three or four dozen flies in my kitchen and dining room.  (Easy enough to do, just swing, you're bound to hit something.)

 

At first I assumed the flies were coming in from outside.  Now that possibility is looking less and less likely.  I checked the potatoes and onions in the bedroom and they were all (mostly) intact.  But I found an old Purple Carrot meal kit that had liquefied.  It was growing something.  Plus it didn't smell so good.  I also found an all but empty 1989 bottle of Rioja whose cork had fallen in.

 

Other than removing the former Purple Carrot meal kit, is there anything I should do?  I am not up on the life cycle of flies exactly but I really wish they would go away.

 

Apologies if anyone is reading at dinner.

 

Edited October 26, 2016 by Smithy
Adjusted title (log)

[Lisa Shock]

The flies will be looking for a place to grow eggs, the eggs then hatch into maggots. They prefer damp, dark areas.

 

Throw out ALL of your your trash/recycling. Then wash your trash cans. 

If you don't use your garbage disposal often, run it now, and pour some vinegar down the drain. Run any sink you don't use very often like in  guest bathroom.

Pull out your fridge and stove and look for 'lost' rotting food. (on a gas stove, try removing the bottom drawer to get access to the floor below)

Clean your under-sink cupboard, it's probably ok, but, a random piece of food could have landed there and started to rot.

Just generally check the backs of things and under stuff. Make sure a mouse hasn't gotten inside, too.

 

The flies themselves can live up to 30 days, so building or buying some sort of trapping device is probably worthwhile, I don't like using pesticides -particularly indoors.

 

My sympathies are with you, good luck!

[Darienne]

Flies.  Ugh.  Last year we were inundated by two different kinds of ants.  First in 21 years.  This year it was houseflies.  First in 22 years.

 

I found the source of the flies.  Revolting.  Don't want to tell.  And then when we got some new special deluxe fly swatters...they just disappeared.  Well, of course we got rid of their 'harborage' (that's really where cockroaches live...I can't find a word for 'fly nests'.)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

The flies will be looking for a place to grow eggs, the eggs then hatch into maggots. They prefer damp, dark areas.

 

Throw out ALL of your your trash/recycling. Then wash your trash cans. 

If you don't use your garbage disposal often, run it now, and pour some vinegar down the drain. Run any sink you don't use very often like in  guest bathroom.

Pull out your fridge and stove and look for 'lost' rotting food. (on a gas stove, try removing the bottom drawer to get access to the floor below)

Clean your under-sink cupboard, it's probably ok, but, a random piece of food could have landed there and started to rot.

Just generally check the backs of things and under stuff. Make sure a mouse hasn't gotten inside, too.

 

The flies themselves can live up to 30 days, so building or buying some sort of trapping device is probably worthwhile, I don't like using pesticides -particularly indoors.

 

My sympathies are with you, good luck!

 

Thanks for your sympathy!

 

Unfortunately I can't lift or pull out my computer, so there's not much hope for the refrigerator or the stove.

 

Since I located the Purple Carrot meal kit I've seen (and dealt with) two flies.  I just walked around looking, and now I can't find any.  Traps sound like a plan.  The library has a new book on raising venus fly traps and other carnivorous vegetation.  So perhaps there is an organic, non-chemical solution.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, Darienne said:

Flies.  Ugh.  Last year we were inundated by two different kinds of ants.  First in 21 years.  This year it was houseflies.  First in 22 years.

 

I found the source of the flies.  Revolting.  Don't want to tell.  And then when we got some new special deluxe fly swatters...they just disappeared.  Well, of course we got rid of their 'harborage' (that's really where cockroaches live...I can't find a word for 'fly nests'.)

 

@Darienne I'd like to say I liked your post.  Decades ago for a couple years the ants here were horrible.  I once watched them take down a wasp in my hallway.  Needless to say they went all through the kitchen cabinets.

 

You have my empathy.

 

[boilsover]

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

 

 I checked the potatoes and onions in the bedroom...   I found an old Purple Carrot meal kit that had liquefied... I also found an all but empty 1989 bottle of Rioja whose cork had fallen in.

 

Hmmm, I wonder why you have flies.  Are there watermelon rinds in the China hutch?  I can jest because I've done worse...

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I was cooking in a boyfriend's dads kitchen in a mobile home many years ago at their very, very aggressive urging. I did not want to. I didn't like to try to cook in small bachelor kitchens that don't look too clean. It scares me, and in this case was very justified. I pulled a sack of potatoes I was going to fry up from out of one of their cabinets, and it dripped liquid all over, smelled putrid, and on further inspection, had maggots squirming in it. They were determined I would cook, because the boyfriend had been bragging on the cooking that came out of my clean and larger kitchen. I cleaned the repulsive mess while the dad went to get fresh potatoes. This relationship burned out very quickly. 

 

As far as fly traps, I have never seen any except the old-fashioned rolls of fly paper that come rolled up into little cardboard tubes that I used to buy at the feed, tack and farm supply store to hang in the stables. They were cheap and effective. Once you unwind them from their tubes, they smell pleasantly sweet and attract the flies very well. Just be careful to hang them in an out-of-the-way area. The flies will come to them. Also be careful not to get your long hair caught in the dratted things, as I did, once. You will have to cut your hair to get loose.

 

I refuse to cook in a kitchen with even a single fly buzzing around. You can't leave out a mise, or even walk away from a piece of meat to get some seasoning. I know what the buggers are doing when they land on food. They regurgitate and suck it up to eat, at the least, and they may be trying to lay eggs too. I know they serve a purpose, but they are so gross, and no one wants them in their kitchen. It's enough to make me walk out of a restaurant if I see a single fly.

 

Also modern fridges are on rollers now, and I can easily move one to clean under it if I have taken out all the food out and put it in coolers to defrost the fridge. I tried both, and I could not budge either of them fully loaded. It's the landlord's fridge that needs defrosting. They want to provide only the best appliances.  I'm just lucky I have a large enough kitchen to accommodate a nice Amana as well. A wooden dowel works well to fish debris from under fridges without moving them. When we had a cat, I was constantly fishing out cat toys and treats he batted under there. 

 

 

[sartoric]

This is the perfect fly/mosquito weapon.

 

Okay, it scares the dogs a bit, (notice dog heading inside) but is oh so effective. Zap, end of fly, and it's rechargeable.

If I stalk the lone fly with a can of aerosol killer, I nearly gag.

There's always one that gets inside when I'm cooking,...bastards, what use are they ?

 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Flies do serve a purpose in the wild, disposing of and cleaning up organic refuse, eventually, after their disgusting activities, but in our homes? Agreed! The bastards serve no use at all! I can still make short work of them with a standard swatter, as long as they land somewhere I can get them without destroying something else. The electric swatter is intriguing, though, but they don't seem to be sold here in stores, and I rarely resort to buying online.

[dcarch]

Those tennis racket electronic zappers work for all flying bugs, moths, mosquitoes, etc. about $3.00 each at Harbor Freight.  I have one in each room.

 

I think there are more than one kind of flies. Most of then are attracted to meat or reproduce in meat.

 

Look for that dead mouse or a piece of old meat on the floor behind something.

 

dcarch

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, sartoric said:

This is the perfect fly/mosquito weapon.

 

Okay, it scares the dogs a bit, (notice dog heading inside) but is oh so effective. Zap, end of fly, and it's rechargeable.

If I stalk the lone fly with a can of aerosol killer, I nearly gag.

There's always one that gets inside when I'm cooking,...bastards, what use are they ?

 

 

I have a couple of those. For mossies, though. Not flies.Very effective.

 

[cakewalk]

God in His wisdom made the fly

And then forgot to tell us why.

(Ogden Nash)

[Darienne]

Poked around online and found a name for the electronic fly zapper: Koolatron Electronic Handheld Insect Zapper and a place: Staples.  So off we go later today to get one of these little beauties.  (OK.  I am in Canada.)

 

As noted before, the flies suddenly pretty much disappeared when we purchased just simple, but effective, traditional fly swatters.  Karma, I guess.  But I am taking no chances. 

[Anna N]

22 minutes ago, Darienne said:

Poked around online and found a name for the electronic fly zapper: Koolatron Electronic Handheld Insect Zapper and a place: Staples.  So off we go later today to get one of these little beauties.  (OK.  I am in Canada.)

 

As noted before, the flies suddenly pretty much disappeared when we purchased just simple, but effective, traditional fly swatters.  Karma, I guess.  But I am taking no chances. 

Just remember if your aim sucks and you hit a person or pet the results are not nice!

[lindag]

I cannot bear it if there's a fly in the house, they're disgusting and filthy and I don't want them landing on anything I'll be touching.  As someone else mentioned above, I cannot cook in a kitchen if there's a fly around, I have to get rid of it.  I have screens on the windows and doors and I use them!

And don't get me started on mosquitoes!

 

Edited August 28, 2016 by lindag (log)

[KennethT]

You can also hang fly-paper.. while it is unsightly, I've found that they are effective in trapping flies... and there are no harsh chemicals to deal with.

[boilsover]

2 hours ago, lindag said:

I cannot bear it if there's a fly in the house, they're disgusting and filthy and I don't want them landing on anything I'll be touching.  As someone else mentioned above, I cannot cook in a kitchen if there's a fly around, I have to get rid of it.  I have screens on the windows and doors and I use them!

And don't get me started on mosquitoes!

 

 

 

You and Walter White...

[JoNorvelleWalker]

At least flies pollinate cocoa trees for chocolate.

 

[Tere]

Flies, ugh. I hate that they try to land on me all the time. I must smell nice or something.

 

I'd not seen those tennis racket zappers before. eBay provides

[KitchenQueen]

How about this?  Scroll down for the bulb that fits in any light socket. $19.00 on Amazon with good   reviews. Are  fruit flies attracted to light?    http://outxpro.com/collections/insect-zappers

 

 

[sparrowgrass]

Sartoric, I think our dogs are separated at birth.  This is Stella.

 

I use the fly tape on the porch--and occasionally, when I want to feel like a real Ozark granny, in the kitchen.

Edited August 29, 2016 by sparrowgrass (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Yesterday I found another housefly in the kitchen.  Definitely not an overgrown fruit fly.  I downed it from the air barehanded.  I am getting better with practice.  This morning I found a second fly but did not have time to deal with it.  I did look all over for a source of flies but did not find anything,

 

Tonight I trapped the fly in the bathroom.  In the confined space of the bathroom it is not about who is smarter or who is faster, it is all about who is bigger.  I was bigger.

 

 

[Duvel]

Think chemical. Use bleach on anything that looks organic. Get those electronic dispensers for pyrethroids and install them everywhere. Put vases filled with distilled vinegar and two tablespoons of marmelade everywhere. Go to a Japanese store and get these little fumigations sets for Tatami mats (used to develop HCN, but now are based on formaldehyde afaik). Hit them hard, hit them early. This is not a battle you want to loose !

 

(yes, I had a rough afternoon ...)

[kayb]

I hate houseflies, and this has been a bad year for them. I will say, though, there is little as satisfying as stalking a flock of them in the kitchen, and relentlessly dispatching a half-dozen. The dog eats them when they fall in the floor, still wriggling just a bit, which kind of grosses me out.

 

We had ants, and fruit flies, also this summer. I think it's because we had next to no winter last year.

 

[chromedome]

Up here it was a bumper year for earwigs, probably for similar reasons.