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We have house flies.
IN WINTER.
They started a little while ago. We noticed one or two around the house, usually in the bathroom or computer room. We suspected that they were after the poo – there was a dirty disposable or two in the bathroom garbage in the cupboard under the sink, and the cat litter box was due to be changed.
On boxing day, it seemed like there was more than ever. That morning we discovered that Beloved Dog had had diarrhea in his crate, no doubt as a thank you for the canned turkey with cranberries dog food I gave him on Christmas Day.
Perfect Husband spent a gruelling half hour cleaning out that crate, and came downstairs a changed and disgusted man. Then I washed the dog’s ass while waving away flies and we made a vow.
Boxing Day would be the Day Of No More Poop.
With Owl potty trained, we no longer have a bin of cloth diapers in his room. I put the last bag out for our diaper service a couple of weeks ago. We still put him in a disposable over night, but that’s it, and he usually doesn’t poop over night.
There was no reason to keep poop in our house.
So I not only cleaned the cat box, I scrubbed it.
We emptied all the garbage.
I swept and mopped the downstairs, and vacuumed the upstairs.
I covered the bathroom and large portions of the kitchen in Comet.
By the end of the day, we could say with pride that our house did not have a single crumb of poo in it.
“Mommy, my POOPED IN THE POTTY!”
…Okay, so we flushed that and THEN our house did not have a crumb of poo in it.
But yesterday, it seemed like there were possibly even more flies.
This morning I was sure of it. I walked into the computer room and found a cloud of TEN OF THE THINGS, just dancing away.
WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM?
I haz the answer. Not to why (in out case it was because our melon habit attracted them and then they laid eggs – YUCK), but how to get rid of them. We put cloves and little pots of vinegar (separately, not cloves in vinegar or anything) around their hotspots and after a couple of days, they were gone. I got this advice from the DoCo btw – apparently its quite a common problem.
Interesting. How does that work? Do they hate cloves and vinegar? I have both.
I found this: http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/Pests/cluster.htm – apparently you have “cluster flies”.
We had these flies our first couple of winters in this house. When we replaced all the doors and windows, it stopped happening – and I never thought about it until just now, reading this post. Not suggesting you replace doors & windows BUT it might make you feel a little better about finding them everywhere… it’s got nothing to do with your cleanliness, according to that link.
You can deal with the ones already in your house either with an exterminator or the clove / vinegar thing… or there’s some natural methods on this site that might work: http://www.ehow.com/info_8369973_natural-cures-cluster-flies.html
Good luck!
OMG, that’s totally what they are! Damn, our windows and sliding doors DO need to be replaced, but since ours aren’t actively leaking water we’re way behind on the wait list for them. We’re supposed to get them sometime next year. At least Wikipedia says that they aren’t a health hazard like most flies. Will try some of these remedies asap.
We’ve had a few winter flies as well. They’re the creepiest–slow moving and half dead. Glad to see the remedies posted here. Flies be gone!