apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I was doing the same thing last night. Damn flies.

That picture is truly hilarious. I had a problem with houseflies a few years ago, where they were all congregating on one of my windows, like Amityville Horror. It was digusting, but I opened the screen and after they all flew out, none returned. I always wondered whether they all got in somehow, or they hatched from some nest.

Get a venus flytrap plant. They really work.

I had the same problem about a month and a half ago. I was standing there getting a sick pleasure out of sucking them up with the Dyson. But there were so many and you get so frustrated. Plus, if you don't find the source (which can be pretty difficult) there's nothing you can really do except ride it out. Good luck.

They probably hatched in a trash bag full of old food.

Use a garbage can with a lid and be sure to throw your kitchen garbage away every night after you throw away your food scraps, so that they don't have a place to lay their eggs.

I tried the vacuum cleaner method as well, but soon found that this required way more coordination than I possess. So glad to know others are suffering from the plague, and my recent infestation wasn't some sort of divine punishment for forgetting to take the trash out. Thanks to an OXO Good Grips flyswatter though, the problem has mostly subsided.

Get a cat! Best bug killer ever. She lets them live for a day but in the morning they are all gone. She also dispatches the stray ant that might make it's way into my place. A bit gross but she's definately efficicent.

My goodness, you must have had a camera on a recent dinner party of mine! There I was, blissfullly cooking away for friends when as if out of nowhere they began to swarm my kitchen (flies, not friends)! I have no clue where they came from, I take my garbage out every night and would never open my windows in this crazy heat. I'm not allowed pets, so no kitty solutions for me. Any scientists out there know what caused this heinous attack of the flies?

I wish my cat would go after insects, but she just observes them with mild disdain. I had the same problem recently, but it was too late to use the vacuum, so I squirted them with my bathroom cleaner (vinegar laced with peppermint oil). I think the vac works better.

I woke up one morning to find at least 50 flies trapped in my vestibule. They were clinging to the windows of the front door, sort of like a black blanket. No garbage can in the vestibule, so no idea how they got there. The vaccuum is a better idea, my husban d ended up spraying them with a really potent poison. No flies since then, but the vestibule stinks.

Haha! Drunken Star Wars scene. too funny.

I wonder if this would work with flies
http://www.diyhappy.com/quick-and-dirty-mosquito-trap/

Anyone willing to have a go and report back or post to flickr with the new ATNY tag?

RKEM - You took the words right out of my mouth. My cats stay pretty active when a fly gets in the house. As a matter of fact, that's when I know there's a fly in the place - they're all bouncing off the walls and windows trying to get at it. It's a great show.

Talk about poor ahimsa practice--I have had to do this, but with ladybugs. One or two ladybugs = adorable. A BAZILLION ladybugs = ick.

Well I always thought it was from the plant we had recently acquired but now I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe they come from the airvents AND water pipes?? SCURRY!!

No flies thank god, but my office has ants. I'll remain thankful they don't fly...

Not to scare you but . . . having had a fly infestation that turned me into an obsessive compulsive fly killer one horrible, hot airconditionerless summer -- make sure to search the entire apartment for flies in other parts of their lifecycle - maggot - egg case - fly. The egg cases are brown little pods. If you have cats - don't leave canned food out & clean the litter box twice a day until the infestation is over. Finally, its ugly but hang flypaper in your windows - it will get them while you are out. Last horrifying fact: maggots can ooze their little selves across a room.

We discovered a huge spider web below our kitchen sheving unit and were about to suck it up with the Dyson when we noticed that the web was FULL of ants and flies. We have now come to love Spidey and now vacuum around it. The web is near the floor, you can't see it -- and the spider is harmless, to us at least. We've grown quite fond of him, er, her. And our ant problem is gone. Crazy.

Judochop, I bet it's the plant. A bunch of eggs on the plant hatched at once and voila, fly attack! Whenever I get fruit flies, the attack is almost always caused by the bananas I just bought--the eggs are on the peels. Ick.

It's possible that a rodent died in the wall. We had a rat, we put poison under the house, that was followed by a horrible smell a few weeks later, which was then followed by large, slow-moving flies.

Yeah, something definitely died in the wall. Or you have a leak from your toilet into the wall.

Get some Raid flying insect spray(comes in blue can). Spray it around your windows, walls, ceiling and anywhere flies congregate. When flies land on the walls they will drop dead.

I had this problem a year or so ago until I discovered that my kitchen window was cracked open. I surmised that even though I'm five flights up, the building's garbage is below me and the flies made it up to my place. Once I closed the window, the flies were gone.

Stephen - yes! I had a little spidey once too, in a previous dwelling. I swept nearby ants into its web and it took care of them pronto. The occasional succulent flying insect would be caught there too. I loved to observe it in action.

I don't have many bugs in my current place. The occasional centipede (gross) (or is it those leggy things that come up from drains), the rare fly. Hardly any spiders ever. They are probably the indicator species in my place - the car pollution is killing them off first.

I second the maggot check suggestion. I had a friend once who left a bag of potatoes on the counter as he usually did with his onions and potatoes because he used them rapidly and frequently. I suggested he refrigerate them but he told me ha ate all his root veges within five days. The summer of flies was interesting. Within a two week period he had a dozen houseflies in a place that ordinarily did not have that problem. I saw this and suggested he check beneath the potatoes. Sure enough, maggot city. They were hatching in the house. Oh God.

Check trash, behind trash, corners under the bed and sofa, where food may have fallen and in cabinets where something may have spilled. Ifg there are a large number of them, they are likely hatching in your home.

I had a similar experience with house flies last weekend at a house I'm renting in the country, and it took me 20 minutes to kill them (the household cleaner spritz method). The week before that we had a bizarre carpenter ant experience where they were cleaning out their nest of dead ones (with the odd wing or leg thrown in), and raining the carnage down on our heads as we slept.
Country takes some getting used to I guess.

We're going through this drama at our house too. Did just buy some new houseplants...hmm. Well at least it gives us a use for those damn Entertainment Weekly magazines they keep sending. How much does it cost to quit a free subscription? Yeesh.

about 3 weeks ago I went through this. my only defense against these huge black discusting things was a flip flop and Holy Water...After watching Amityville Horror I thought my house was posessed! NO LIE!

i have that same problem' I am now searching the internet to see how others deal with this problem. (Hence, i found your blog) Last week I was vacuuming up maggots from under the area rug in the family room. No idea how they got there, they just appeared overnite. SOOO, I knew the maggots i missed would hatch, and sure enough, for the last 3 days my husband and I have been vacumming by the sliders. I will try the Raid spray and fly strip ideas next. I missed alot of maggots, gross is right.