When you think about pest infestations, flies are probably not the first that spring to mind. But flies can be a problem – they spread a lot of diseases and multiply rapidly. Another problem with flies is that they seem to appear in your house all of a sudden. Why is that? Here are some reasons why flies seem to pop out of nowhere.
Where do flies come from?
First, it’s important to understand where flies come from. Flies live near organic materials. These materials can come in many forms. They can be disgusting like excrement, rotting products, and stagnant water. But they can also be as simple as ordinary household items like fruits and sodas.
Basically, if you have food and water on your property, and you likely do, you are vulnerable to fly infestations.
Why are there flies in your house all of a sudden?
Flies don’t just magically appear out of thin air. Your house has flies all of a sudden because flies from outside have been attracted to your property and decided to thrive there.
1. You leave doors and windows open
Accessible passageways are some of the most common reasons why a house becomes infested with various pests, not just flies. Ants, mice, and rats are just some of the most notorious pests that take advantage of passageways.
If you leave your doors and windows open a lot, you are at risk of pest infestations. This is especially true if food and water inside your house are very accessible. You are basically inviting pests into your house.
2. Food and water are too accessible in your property
Remember that there are two main reasons why pests such as flies like your property – resources and shelter. If you make resources easy to come by, they will find your property attractive and decide to nest there.
The key is to not leave your food and water products out in the open. Put them in inaccessible places, like containers, kitchen cabinets, and refrigerators. This includes pet products too.
3. You have poor waste management
Food and water don’t just come from your kitchen and dining area. They can come from your garbage cans too. Flies are very attracted to garbage cans because these can provide both resources and shelter. Flies can even lay their eggs in garbage cans and create a maggot infestation there, which is an entirely new problem on its own.
Practice good waste management by keeping the lids of your garbage cans closed. It’s also ideal to wash food and water containers first before throwing them in the trash. Their residue is enough to attract flies.
4. You don’t clean your home’s exterior
If there are flies in your house all of a sudden, maybe the pests have found a home around your property, particularly on the exterior. There are a lot of spots in your home’s exterior that could serve as a home for these pests aside from the garbage cans. Some of the most common spots are bases of greens like bushes and trees, gardening products like fruits and vegetables, useless debris like old tires, and excrements like compost piles and your pet’s feces.
Make sure to maintain the cleanliness of your home’s exterior to avoid dealing with a sudden influx of flies.
5. You have fruits and vegetables outside
All fly species that can infest your house have one thing in common – they want resources and shelter. But they have certain differences too, particularly in their diet and habits. You will attract specific fly species depending on the condition of your property.
For example, if you have a garden with overripe or rotting fruits, you may end up attracting fruit flies. These flies are attracted to other organic materials too, but they have a heavy preference for fruits and vegetables. If you have a garden with vulnerable vegetables, you may end up attracting root maggot flies. These flies feed on the roots of plants, vegetables, and even fruit trees. Those infested with their maggots are almost always a lost cause.
If there are flies in your house all of a sudden, your garden is one of the first areas you should inspect.
6. You have drainage problems
Drainage problems are troublesome because they create stagnant water. Stagnant water is a pest attractor. It particularly attracts drain flies and mosquitoes. Drain flies are exactly what they sound like. They live in all kinds of drains – the drains in your bathtub, kitchen sink, laundry area, and any other spots where there is some kind of plumbing system.
Drain flies can get to your drains if there are openings in your pipes. If you have a drain fly infestation, you will often hear flies buzzing inside the infested drains. And they go out of the drains too to look for resources.
Fly infestations are avoidable
You don’t have to suffer the risks of having a fly infestation. These infestations are completely avoidable. The secret is to just maintain the cleanliness of your surroundings and fix all structural issues in your property.
- Always keep your surroundings clean. Flies are some of the most common pests you can have at home even though you don’t notice them as much as other pests like cockroaches and rats. Some pests can get attracted to even clean homes, but not flies. If there are no organic materials around to sustain themselves, they will not thrive.
- Store food and water properly. All pests are attracted to food and water. Flies are no exception. It’s just good practice to store food and water properly to avoid attracting all kinds of pests, not just flies.
- Fix structural issues in your house. Structural issues in your home can serve as passageways and shelters for pests. Give particular attention to your piping system because it’s also a source of water. The holes in your walls should also be prioritized. Small pests like rats can get through them and tiny pests like ants and flies can nest in them.