House Flies Homeowners typically find house fly eggs in moist, decaying organic material like trash, grass clippings, or feces. Elongated and pale in color, they appear in clusters and hatch quickly after being laid by the female fly.
Different flies have different breeding sites, but examining your compost, garbage cans, uncovered fruit or produce, and drains for maggots is a good place to start.
House Fly (Musca domestica)
House flies typically lay eggs on animal feces and garbage. White, legless maggots (the larval stage) hatch from the eggs and grow to about ½ inch. When fully grown, maggots crawl away from their food source to undergo the pupal stage.
Flies normally don't lay their eggs indoors unless they can find something decaying and moist, such as animal feces or damp rotting wood. Do you maybe have pet rodents, reptiles, or birds? These are perfect breeding grounds for flies and gnats to lay there eggs. I only takes one fly to produce many, many more flies.
The quickest reasons tend to be: Flies breeding on improperly stored food or in open garbage that hasn't been taken out. Flies coming in as eggs or larvae in new houseplants and then emerging. Flies discovering open windows or doors that allow them easy access indoors.
These unwanted pests not only disrupt your sleep but can also carry harmful bacteria.
Cinnamon – use cinnamon as an air freshner, as flies hate the smell! Lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint and lemongrass essential oils – Not only will spraying these oils around the house create a beautiful aroma, but they will also deter those pesky flies too.
Intestinal myiasis occurs when fly eggs or larvae previously deposited in food are ingested and survive in the gastrointestinal tract. Some infested patients have been asymptomatic; others have had abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea (2,3). Many fly species are capable of producing intestinal myiasis.
The myth that flies lay eggs every time they land is not supported by scientific evidence. Flies are selective about where they lay their eggs and do not lay them on every surface they land on. However, flies can still transmit harmful bacteria and pose a health risk to humans.
The best homemade fly trap is one that can attract both house flies and fruit flies. To lure both outdoors, mix scraps of rotting meat, like fish or chicken, with sugar or honey. When indoors, the best bait is old fruit or honey. Liquid dish soap is exactly what you need to drown the flies.
In either case, flies may enter rooms by crawling under baseboards and attic doors, around window sills, through window pulleys or damaged screens, or through electrical fixtures. They are usually found in window sills and other out of the way places, moving sluggishly.
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.
Afraid of shadows
Gibson and his team enclosed flies in an arena where the buzzing insects were exposed repeatedly to an overhead shadow. The flies looked startled and, if flying, increased their speed. Occasionally the flies froze in place, a defensive behaviour also observed in the fear responses of rodents.
Vinegar and Dish Soap - Fill a bowl slightly with apple cider vinegar, wine or honey with some dish soap (washing up liquid). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap with punctured holes or leave uncovered. Flies will be attracted to the smell and will get stuck within the liquid.
Flies are one of the only bugs that are actively affected by colors. While designing more effective fly traps, researchers from the University of Florida found that flies are attracted to blue tones and repelled by warm tones like yellow.
The best bait to use in a fly trap is anything sweet, sugary or fermenting, like rotting fruit, alcohols like wine, sticky soda, or sweet and sticky substances like honey or maple syrup. Sugar water and apple cider vinegar are also great options.
The life expectancy of a housefly is generally 15 to 30 days and depends upon temperature and living conditions. Flies dwelling in warm homes and laboratories develop faster and live longer than their counterparts in the wild. The housefly's brief life cycle allows them to multiply quickly if left uncontrolled.
Trash cans, dirty diapers, dirty dishes, rotten foods, food debris, etc. are possible breeding areas for inspecting House Fly activity. Most of the time, when you find house flies inside, it is because they are coming inside the structures. Check cracks around windows, doors, and vents as possible entry points.
Eggs can be hard to look out for, especially when they're in a hidden place like garbage or under other debris. Rotting foundations, dirty areas around the house, and food products are common areas where flies may lay their eggs.
Flies are just like us – they spend the entire day buzzing around with their friends and get pretty tired at bedtime. Before sunset, a sleepy fly will try and find a safe place to rest. Some favourite places are on the undersides of leaves, twigs, and branches, or even in tall grass or under rocks.