Flies in the attic - where do they keep coming from???

[WotsOccuring]

We've been in our house for nearly 2 years now and we keep getting periods where the spare room has a number of dead flies on the window sill yuck! The access to the loft is via this room and we know that the flies are coming from the loft. Both DH and I have investigated up there but cannot find anything 'unsavoury' that could be causing this!

The odd thing is that this hasn't always been the case ie didn't have the fly problem when we first moved in and it happens in periods ie one week there will be up to 20 dead flies but the next week there won't be any - we haven't noticed a pattern in weather/temperature but haven't really been keeping a close check.

Any suggestions, short of getting rentokil in? Would rather not cos of the cost but we cannot figure out what the heck is causing this. I really don't like using that room for guests now so must get it sorted soon.

[lucykate]

do you have any birds nesting up there?, they can sneak in under the edge of the roof tiles, get behind the soffits etc.

[llareggub]

They sound like cluster flies

[emalushka]

Oh no! My mum has this problem. Every year between October and February she has swarms of flies in her attic. It's horrible.

BUT I'm really sorry to say, it's been happening since I lived at home - since 1993 - so 15 years and they've still not got to the bottom of it. They've had lots of people from the council and pest control and nobody can get to the bttom of it. They've had the roof redone and the eaves checked and it still happens every year. What does help though is special fly catcher things which they hang outside - a plastic container filled with a liquid and it catches hundreds of them. It's some kind of organic fly catcher, but is really effective.

[WotsOccuring]

Yuk....thanks everyone. I can't see any birds nesting up there but how can I check for sure that none are hiding?!?

llareggub - it does sound a bit like cluster flies - yuk! Odd thing is tho that they only appear in the spare room so suggests that the point of entry is via the room/eaves.

emalushka - how annoying! I will have to google the special fly catcher thing you talk about...you don't happen to know that name of it?

[lucykate]

as it's just in one room, i suspect there may well be coming from a nest, could even be a redundant nest if there are no sign of birds. but it's the nests that are full of all kinds of nasties. we had our soffitts replaced last summer and the nest that was above our bathroom window was horrid, all kinds of weird insects were coming from it.

[LGoodLife]

You can make your own flycatcher: cut the top off a plastic pop bottle a third of the way down, put a little water and something disgustingly fly-attractive in the bottom half, re-insert the top half without lid, upsidedown, into the bottom half and hang somewhere. The flies smell the bait, go through the bottle neck into the grot at the bottom and are too stupid to find the little hole again to escape. Or but those sticky tapes and hang it, or get one of the fly-poison window pens.

[LittleOtik]

We are going through exactly the same, except the flies aren't dead and they are in our bedroom

Every day there are 3 or 4 new flies. Today I found a load in my wardrobe (they flew out when I took out a jumper) which scared the bejeezus out of me. Have just spent an hour and a half cleaning out the wardrobe and bedroom - suspect though that I will meet more fly friends when I next go up... (might just never go back in the bedroom...)

[LGoodLife]

If they are bluebottles they are probably hibernating.

[jumpingbeans]

Have you got a dead body up there@o

[LGoodLife]

Her secret's out!

[WotsOccuring]

Darn...was hoping noone would suss...Sherlock has nothing on your MNetters

Don't fancy making my own fly catcher LGood - we'll be arguing over who has to get rid of the end result (GROSS!!) and then there might well be a dead body up there and I'll be left with the exact same problem LOL!

[LGoodLife]

I stick with those hanging sticky tapes in the summer (cows by us attract flies sometimes), have to admit I've never personally made the gunk trap, same reason as you.

[Galava]

Have you got sash windows ?

We had this in an older house and the bluebottles were living in the gaps. Yuk.

We ended up moving house (not just cos of the flies) so problem solved