A fly infestation can occur in most environments with little to no warning.  It does not mean you don't clean.  It does not mean that you don't manage your household or business.  Sure, cleanliness and debris management both assist in preventing flies, but we have seen maggots covering the floor of the cleanest of homes on more than one occasion.

How do infestations start?

First, it is important to note that a female fly will lay from 50 to 100 eggs at a time, and will lay around 500 in her lifetime.  That is a lot of flies and a lot of maggots.  The eggs take about 12 hours to hatch into maggots, and the maggots take about 10 days to pass through its 3 larval stages on the way to becoming the next fly annoying you.

Let's say you decide to grill some steak on Memorial Day, as we Americans love to do.  With that wonderful feast comes leftovers and trash.  Whatever you don't give to the dog, is prime for a fly to lay its eggs.  The flies lay their eggs in any organic decaying matter.  So after you grill, you clean well, you take out the trash, and you even hose down the patio.  However, one little piece of meat makes it into a corner.  The female fly then lays her eggs in the meat, the maggots feed on the meat as they transform into flies.  If the maggots run out of food, they will seek more crawling in different directions, giving the appearance that they are all over the floor.  Not fun for anyone.

How do i stop the infestion?

Flies need the same things we do to survive.  They need food, water and shelter.  If you take away any one of the three altogether, they will go away.  However that is easier said than done.

Food is the easiest to control.  Water is going to be around, aside from a drought.  Ensure any standing water has the ability to run off in a timely manner.  Moss is a signal that you have too much moisture in an area.  Shelter is abundant for them.   Bushes are shelter and weep holes are examples of shelter.  Let's talk more about food.

Their food is any organic decaying matter, so there are several things that can and need to be done.  Since we all love bullet point points... here is a list in order of our recommendations homeowners can do to get rid of flies:

• Walk the house inside and out and determine where the highest population is
• Clean up debris and trash in and around the home such as piles of clothes, crumbs on a counter top, kids areas, leaves, etc.
• Clean up any pet droppings outside
• Clean the floors, baseboards, bathrooms and kitchen thoroughly including the nooks and crannies under a dishwasher for example
• Work the land outside (churn mulch, deeply rake grassy areas, put down rocks or something similar in damp areas... not gravel)
• Contact a pest professional, such as A Bug Guy, to help out

As far as treating flies:  A licensed professionals approach to flies only goes so far.  If the home is not kept, the flies will persist.  Likewise, a pest control professional has little to no control as far as what goes on at your neighbors houses.  Here are some options to treat for flies:

• Use an effective pesticide in the yard, focusing on the infested areas.
• Apply a granule to the yard that is labeled for flies.
• Use a fly trap or a sticky trap (we don't like these due to the smell and the clean up required)
• Use an aerosol bait to take the flies out.

What does a bug guy do for flies?

Final thoughts