Fall Flies! and I DO mean bugs!

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user 26

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what is the deal with fall flies?! they seem to be everywhere in here. i am packing and working quietly and i hear buzzzz bump bump and i look and there is a big fly bumping against the window glass seeking a way out. i get a flyswatter (one of many many many swatters that were here when i got here years back) and return to the window. smack smack. down with the flies ... i eliminate a dozen!
into another room i go (the doors are closed to most of the rooms because the place is so cold) and i see or hear another fly. taken to carrying a flyswatter with me as i go from room to room. smack smack smack ... another 6 or 7 bite the dust. i notice there is blood from the flies, like when you kill mosquitoes. oooh, bad biting flies!! are these black flies? horse flies? what are they? it is soo cold out here now.
and it's quiet.
too quiet ... wait, did you hear something?
 
...creepy, spooky horror-film music plays...
...the beautiful heroine creeps slowly through the empty bed and breakfast, knowing her days here are at an end...
...death comes swiftly...
Die flies die!!!!!
=)
Kk.
 
We had those flies in VT. I called them stupid flies because they bunch up on the glass or drone aimlessly around annoying the living daylights out of you. Fall and spring. Ugh.
Really, they should be called windowsill flies because that's where they die and where you find them.
 
they have blood in them
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

they aren't what we called blue bottles with the blueish heads, these are black and do they bite?? enough!!!!!!
 
they have blood in them
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

they aren't what we called blue bottles with the blueish heads, these are black and do they bite?? enough!!!!!!.
We're being inundated with millipedes! There everywhere. We've sprayed everything down, but they keep showing up. I think the cooler temperatures are finally prevailing and their numbers are dwindling. We've been picking up their little carcasses all over the house.
 
they have blood in them
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

they aren't what we called blue bottles with the blueish heads, these are black and do they bite?? enough!!!!!!.
seashanty said:
they have blood in them
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

they aren't what we called blue bottles with the blueish heads, these are black and do they bite?? enough!!!!!!
If it's any consolation, it's their own blood in them...
Kill 'em all!!!
=)
Kk.
 
they have blood in them
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

they aren't what we called blue bottles with the blueish heads, these are black and do they bite?? enough!!!!!!.
We're being inundated with millipedes! There everywhere. We've sprayed everything down, but they keep showing up. I think the cooler temperatures are finally prevailing and their numbers are dwindling. We've been picking up their little carcasses all over the house.
.
Yes the millipedes are on the rise. We've had two bad years in a row with them (both the large and the small ones). Our Orkin guy confirmed that he has been treating for them far more than other years. Interesting to hear that you and I are both seeing increases in them in completely different parts of the country.
 
You knew it was coming....here it is:
This guy lived on his own and he was feeling a bit lonely, so he goes to
the pet shop to get something to keep him company. The pet shop owner suggested
an unusual pet, a talking millipede. OK, thought the man, I'll give it a
go, so he bought one and took it home.
That night he decided to test out his new pet, so he opened the box and
said, "I'm going to the pub for a drink, do you want to come too?"
But there was no reply. He tried again, "Oi, millipede, wanna come to the
boozer with me?" Again, no response. So the man ranted and raved for a
bit, but after a while decided to give it one more try before he took the
thing back to the shop. So he took the lid off the box and repeated, "I
said I'm going to the pub for a drink do you want to come?"
"For goodness sake, I heard you the first time" snapped the millipede, "I'm
just putting my shoes on"
 
These DUMB flies that appear in the fall are called "Cluster Flies". Google them.
They are a nightmare to get rid of. They are slow and tend to cluster by the windows and overhead lights. I battled these year after year and finally got rid of them. There isn't a whole lot you can do to get rid of them since they live inside the walls of your house.
I had a professional pest control company come out and treat and there wasn't much they could do that I couldn't do myself. They put some sort of white powder chemical in the crevises of my window sills. It didn't really get rid of them. I did that myself the following year and the year after. They will eventually go away or die with the onset of winter. Also look in your attic - you may find clusters of them there, too.
These are the flies that are described in the book, "The Amityville Horror." One day, I cam home and found hundreds of them all over the wood trim around a window - so thick that I couldn't even see the trim anymore. I opened the windows and the stupid flies flew out into the cold night. Bye-bye.
I feel for ya on this one! There is no real good solution for these, at least there wasn't when I had them 1997 through 2000.
After doing battle with cluster flies, then came the lady bugs... I don't get any of those here in Miami! Thank God!
 
These DUMB flies that appear in the fall are called "Cluster Flies". Google them.
They are a nightmare to get rid of. They are slow and tend to cluster by the windows and overhead lights. I battled these year after year and finally got rid of them. There isn't a whole lot you can do to get rid of them since they live inside the walls of your house.
I had a professional pest control company come out and treat and there wasn't much they could do that I couldn't do myself. They put some sort of white powder chemical in the crevises of my window sills. It didn't really get rid of them. I did that myself the following year and the year after. They will eventually go away or die with the onset of winter. Also look in your attic - you may find clusters of them there, too.
These are the flies that are described in the book, "The Amityville Horror." One day, I cam home and found hundreds of them all over the wood trim around a window - so thick that I couldn't even see the trim anymore. I opened the windows and the stupid flies flew out into the cold night. Bye-bye.
I feel for ya on this one! There is no real good solution for these, at least there wasn't when I had them 1997 through 2000.
After doing battle with cluster flies, then came the lady bugs... I don't get any of those here in Miami! Thank God!.
Sanctuary in Miami said:
These DUMB flies that appear in the fall are called "Cluster Flies". Google them.
Thanks. Do not know why I could not come up with that name yesterday. As the name matches the behavior...
 
I used to be able to report to you every detail about Cluster Flies as I did a LOT of research on them back when I was at war with them, but that was over 10 years ago, and I just don't remember all the little details. I had forgotten about these little devils until you brought it up.
One thing that may have brought them on - did you have any new construction to your home over the past summer, such as an addition or something like that? I got my first batch when I finished the construction of my home. Only the new homes in the neighborhood had them.
If you have them clustering on the windows, use a vacuum cleaner to suck them up and then set the vacuum cleaner outside over night in the cold - that'll kill 'em if they survived the trip down the vacuum hose. I did that a lot. If you try that technique with lady bugs, you get a stinky mess because they stink when you squash them.
 
Just for fun, I googled Cluster Flies, and NOW I remember!!! I got rid of them by treating my lawn for bugs in the warm months. I used Grub-X and that’s when I noticed that the flies did not reappear the following Fall. They breed in the soil and feed on worms and maggots (grubs) in the lawn in the warm months and the offspring, after becoming flies, move indoors in the Fall. The best tactic is to stop them in the yard first. Now, that won’t fix your current problem, but don’t forget to treat your lawn in the upcoming Spring and Summer. I treated mine pretty heavily, and often, that year. :) I don’t have kids or outdoor pets, so I wasn’t worried about poisoning them in the yard. Your situation may differ and you should be aware of that if you’re planning a full scale attack.
For me, there was just no other way. I battled these beasts for about 3 years before I turned my yard into a chemical pond. That did it, and boy did my lawn look great that year, too! I was mowing a very thick, green lawn 2-3 times a week!
 
You knew it was coming....here it is:
This guy lived on his own and he was feeling a bit lonely, so he goes to
the pet shop to get something to keep him company. The pet shop owner suggested
an unusual pet, a talking millipede. OK, thought the man, I'll give it a
go, so he bought one and took it home.
That night he decided to test out his new pet, so he opened the box and
said, "I'm going to the pub for a drink, do you want to come too?"
But there was no reply. He tried again, "Oi, millipede, wanna come to the
boozer with me?" Again, no response. So the man ranted and raved for a
bit, but after a while decided to give it one more try before he took the
thing back to the shop. So he took the lid off the box and repeated, "I
said I'm going to the pub for a drink do you want to come?"
"For goodness sake, I heard you the first time" snapped the millipede, "I'm
just putting my shoes on".
barf.gif

 
Instead of swatting I vacuum my flies up with a Dyson Vacuum. Both the hand held dyson and the upright model work well.
 
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