How to get rid of these flies!

[Debamaz]

Posting here for traffic.
For the last couple of months, we’ve had loads of small black flies appear in our bathroom (nowhere else in the house). The windows are almost always closed so thought they were coming up from drain. I’ve been putting bleach down the sink/bath/toilet every day but still loads of these flies and due to the condensation, they die in the bathroom. I cleaned the bathroom thoroughly yesterday and cleaned up 20 odd dead flies, went into the bathroom this morning and there were 6-10 on the ceiling!
I checked the outside drains yesterday and they weren’t not blocked. Also whacked some bleach down there but today they were back!
It’s really getting me down now as I feel dirty having flies in the bathroom but no amount of cleaning and bleach is getting rid of them!

Any ideas? Thanks

Are they tiny? Do you have any plants in the bathroom? What about the overflow in the sink?

Yes, very tiny. No plants in bathroom. All pipes seem fine.

Any bad smell? No possibility a mouse has died under the floor/in the ceiling?

I bought those fly trap sticky window flower stickers with the hope of trapping house flies but there are loads of tiny flies on there we didn't know about.

Do you have a steam cleaner? I'd say a jet of steam in every nook and cranny for a few days would break the life cycle.

It's a season for fruit flies aka tiny twats.
Mix apple cider vinegar with few drops of washing up liquid in a jar, cover top with foil and pierce small holes in. Works well

What @InCheesusWeTrust says. Almost totally solved the problem for me. Still get an odd pesky one zipping.

Should have said zipping about. I don’t bother with the foil- just the apple cider vinegar (cheap in Lidl) and the washing up liquid in a ramekin.

Cluster flies. They come into the house when it starts getting cold. You might have an infestation in the loft space. Get pest control to come and fumigate, but likely they will recommend doing this in November to ensure you get all of them.

Another one who did the vinegar and washing up liquid! I couldn't see how it would work but it really really did.

Thanks, does it have to be apple cider vinegar or would white vinegar work?

We haven’t got a loft hatch but will try the vinegar tip!

No bad smells but I am vacuuming and bleaching the bathroom daily. They aren’t going in any other rooms.

Similar issue here but we get it mostly downstairs. I recently bought the geraniums in to overwinter so wondered if they were in the soil. I tried white wine vinegar and a few drops of washing up liquid in a small fish but no luck yet

Dish not fish!

What does the vinegar/washing up liquid mix do - are they attracted to it then die?

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Google drain flies… if it’s these you’ve a leak somewhere from a waste “out” pipe… they’ll be coming up the pipes or through a gap in tiles from behind… you’d need a plumber to fix and Permethrin to kill the eggs/hatching cycle (bleach, vinegar etc. isn’t strong enough, it only kills the adult flies, not the eggs that then slowly appear again a few days later….)

Put sellotape on plug with sticky side down then look at it in the morning. Will show if they are drain flies on there

For the fruit fly trick, it has to be apple cider vinegar (not white vinegar) as they are attracted to the fruity smell. The dishwashing liquid is supposed to make them unable to fly away again I think. Some people also cover with foil on cling film with small holes pierced in so they can get in, but not get out again so easily

*foil OR cling film

Sounds like drain flies. We had a leak in one of our draining pipes and had thousands of these b£&sta@&s. Once all sorted they went after a few drain cleaners x

Yeah they go in but never come out muahahahahahhahahahaha
annoying twats.

Yes, white vinegar wouldn't work

They're attracted to the smell of the vinegar but would fly towards any fermenting food smell so if you didn't have any, you could try mashed up ripe banana mixed with water.
The reason for adding a couple of drops of washing up liquid is that it breaks the surface tension you'd otherwise get on the liquid, so they drown rather than balancing on the surface.
Very very effective.
I usually just put the vinegar in a small jar and put a cone of paper above (same effect as punching small holes in a clingfilm or other lid - they can fly in more easily than they can find their way out) - and tend to find 50+ dead fruit flies by the next day.

Dish not fish!

I feel your pain! We had flies in our kitchen a few months back - made me feel sick the amount there were - cleaned the kitchen hourly, duck taped round the doors leading to outside, took baseboards off to hover out and still loads of flies. Like you say it makes everything feel dirty and I hated having to feed my kids in there while watching for flies.

Turned out next door had a problem with their drain that was the other side of the fence and that’s were they were hatching from - I never found out how they were getting into our kitchen but once next door had sorted their drain I didn’t have any more problems. So it may be worth you asking any neighbours if they are having issues.

Hope you get it sorted.

I had an infestation of these in an indoor herb garden I planted… No idea how they got there but the seem to appear from the soil. I tried everything and couldn’t get rid of them. So sadly I had to throw away my beautiful home grown herbs 😢…

Do you have any plants in the bathroom?