How Flies Can Invade a Clean House

Flies infesting Central TN home - The Bug Man

Although flies are typically seen as a pest problem during the summer, they can also be a nuisance at other times of the year. Bottom line: nobody enjoys dealing with flies indoors. Their presence can be frustrating and make you wonder how they got indoors in the first place. To avoid having to deal with flies in your Tennessee property, the key is to know what’s drawing them indoors.

The experts at The Bug Man are here to help—read on to learn all you need to know about keeping flies from invading your home. 

Why Do Flies Come Inside?

We’re all used to seeing flies outdoors, but it can be a real pain to find them invading your own home. Flies get inside for a number of reasons, usually in pursuit of trash, rotting food, or moisture. A common house fly is attracted to decaying organic matter like feces and rotting meat. Drain flies, on the other hand, are attracted to moisture and will lay their eggs inside of drains. Additional conditions that might attract flies in your home include uncovered trash cans, pet feces, animal carcasses in your walls, rotting fruit, spilled sugary drinks, and more. Once flies get indoors, they can reproduce quickly, making it important to learn how to prevent them.

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How to Keep Flies Outside

Flies are more common in the summer, but they can be drawn inside your property in the winter as well. This makes it important to learn how to keep flies out all year round. By preventing these pests in the first place, you will not have to deal with them later. Take the following steps to prevent flies in your home:

  1. In the fall as the temperature begins to change, it is imperative to seal off your home to keep flies out. Do this by caulking cracks on the property. Sealing windows and doors is especially important, as some species such as cluster flies tend to enter homes under baseboards and window frames.
  2. In order to prevent nuisance flies like gnats and fruit flies, it’s best to eliminate their food and shelter sources. You should always throw away rotting food from your pantry or fridge. Take your garbage outside regularly and use tight-fitting lids on your cans. Lastly, focus on sealing cracks and crevices around windows and doors near your kitchen.

Need Help Getting Rid of Flies?

If you have a fly infestation on your property, you should hire a local fly control expert. At The Bug Man, we work hard to eliminate the conditions that lead to fly infestations in your home.

To learn more, contact us today!

What Pests Eat When They Are In Your House: A Food Chain Factoid

What Pests Eat When They Are In Your House

Have you ever stopped to wonder what bugs eat? You know you see ants in your kitchen from time to time, but what are they after? And what in the world do spiders think they can find inside your house? What’s so delicious about hanging out in the corners of your rooms?

 

Here’s a quick food chain factoid for what pests eat when they are in your house!

 

 

Crickets: Fabrics, especially those full of perspiration

Cockroaches: Sweets, cheeses, meats, grease, and starches. Vegetables and fruits. Household items like leather, beer, glue, dried skin, books, paper, human dander, and a lot more

Brown Recluse Spiders: Other bugs, like cockroaches and crickets

Black Widow Spiders: Their mates! (Actually, that’s a myth. They don’t eat their mates). But they do eat other insects.

Carpenter Bees: Wood! Nope. They actually don’t eat wood. They just bore into wood to lay their eggs. They eat pollen.

Ants: Sweets, eggs, oils, and fats

Bed Bugs: You. They feast on you for a blood meal. They will also dine on animals.

 

Fruit Flies: Decaying fruits and vegetables

House Flies: Liquids. They can also turn solids into liquids and then eat the liquid form of that food.

Silverfish: Paper, glue, clothing, flour, and oats

House Centipedes: Flies, spiders, and plant tissue

Fleas: Cats, dogs and humans

Rodents: Grains, fruits, seeds, chocolate, random items in your trashcan

Termites: Cellulose: A polysaccharide consisting of long unbranched chains of linked glucose units: the main constituent of plant cell walls and used in making paper, rayon, and film

After reading this diverse list of what pests eat, it makes a lot of sense that they’d look for food inside your home. To keep pests out, call The Bug Man. You can reach us by phone at 615.217.7284 or find us online at Facebook.com/TheBugManTN orTwitter.com/TheBugManTN.

Fruit Flies: Cause, Elimination and Education

Fruit Flies

Learn about the causes and elimination of pesky fruit flies.Tiny black minions. Foul flying fools. Little looney losers.

Fruit flies.

So you went to the store and bought some fresh fruit. You’re making a push to eat healthier. You’re going to the gym. You’re taking the stairs. You’re determined to learn how to make great smoothies with your collection of bananas, strawberries, grapes, and protein powder. You’re ready.

You’re set.

You’re UPSET!

Because you found fruit flies!

Now you wonder where the fruit flies came from. Instead of hitting the gym, you’re hitting the countertop, the table, the air, and your hands together, in an effort to smash the small, sickening sleuths.

Sad story. Sad story, indeed.

Back to Their Roots
Fruit flies hail from organic matter. Translation: Fruit flies can breed in decaying fruit, drains, and house plants. Rotting fruit is a perfect spot for a flourishing fruit fly family. Bananas are especially responsible because fruit flies lay their eggs in the stems of bananas. Drains in the kitchen, bathroom, and utility room are also popular places. And, the oft-forgotten common house plant is another huge hang out for fruit flies.

Uprooting the Rebels
Eliminating fruit flies can be tricky at times. Upon scouring the internet for you so you don’t have to, we discovered several fruit fly removal formulas. Anything from homemade funnels in sports drink bottles to Drano© to strategically placed wine glasses was suggested.

Here at The Bug Man, we have a few recommendations.

  1. Store the fruit in the fridge or dispose of whatever rotting fruit is attracting the flies. And, make a note to check your fruit at the store before you buy it to make sure no flies are nearby.
  2. After you’ve disposed of the rotting fruit, take out the trash. And while you’re doing that…
  3. Scope out the bottom of your trash or recycle bin. Is it dirty? If so, clean it.
  4. Wipe down your counters, tables, and floor. Sticky, leftover residue may be attracting flies.
  5. If you have a house plant, try re-potting it. How long has that soil been in there? Was it re-potted after you bought it?
  6. Clean your drains. We recommend pouring a diluted bleach solution down your drains. Let’s pause 15 seconds for emphasis.

1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…11…12…13…14…15…

A diluted solution. Please don’t douse your drain with a container of bleach in an attempt to be overly thorough in your cleaning quest. Use one capful of bleach per gallon of water. Little bleach. Lot water.

If you’re still seeing fruit flies after taking the steps listed above, there are several other things you can try. There are numerous variations of a vinegar/soap concoction. Opinions vary as to which one works the best. If you need a customized recommendation of what to do, please leave us a comment here. We’ll do our best to help you out.

You may now return to your pursuit of healthy living, fruit-eating, and workouts at the gym.