How to get rid of a plague of little flies

[wetotter]

I have an infestation. Just in one room (kitchen)

I've tried open windows and door in the hope they'll fly away to freedom.

I've tried fly paper, but very few have been dim enough to fly in to it.

I've tried Raid, but it doesn't seem up to the job - but perhaps that's how I've been using it - spraying a bit half-heatedly as I have a dog and didn't think it would be good for her.

Now I'd prefer it if the flies would just leave - they're only 'guilty' of being alive in an inconvenient place. But that's not looking likely. And the dog's away soon at the sitters for 48 hours because of Other Stuff going on.

So what's the best thing to do to rid myself of this problem? Spray? Which one? How extensively?

I can get to a good range of shops and have Amazon, so should be able to get my mitts on any mainstream product

Fruit flies? Like the tiny, tiny annoying ones? Put some white / cider vinegar in a small dish or container. Cover with clingfilm. Pierce some holes in the clingfilm. Leave it somewhere. They'll drown themselves. But once you get them they are very hard to eradicate permanently - not a sign of being dirty, but that they love houseplants, bins, drains, the fruit bowl....

they'll be in a plant pot

They could be cluster flies. I get them every year at this time. They hibernate in the channels in the sash windows in their thousands. I wage war on them for about a month. Vacuum everywhere I can reach on the windows and spray raid every day. It usually stops about the end of November.

Remove the source.
It will be something damp and sweet, or rotten fruit/rubbish, a dirty bin, or the compost caddy.

I live in woodland and they come in from there. They have inherited memory so come back to the same windows every year 🤬

I've got the black flies at the moment that are about half the size of a bluebottle. I'm told they are trying to come in for the winter, dammed things seem to wait for me to open the back door to be let it. If its those then put a Redtop fly catch up by your door. They look revolting but work well.
If its little fruit flies check there isn't a "gone over" carved pumpkin attracting them (from experience), or a bit of forgotten old fruit in a cupboard.

I've been invaded as well, hundreds of the bloody things. Well I've killed hundreds on sticky sheets, like A5 sized fly paper. I put them round the plants and hang some on the window. Within a couple of days they are covered in dead flies but they seem to be multiplying faster than I can kill them. I suppose the only positive is that there would probably be millions if I hadn't been fighting them.

I mix up a bowl of water with vinegar and sugar and washing up liquid, don't bother with the cling film. It very satisfyingly accumulates lots of little bodies.

Picture please so we can decide whether they are cluster flies or tiny fruit flies.

You need a different treatment for each.

This company provides the products necessary to deal with a Cluster Fly invasion.

www.clusterflies.co.uk/cluster-flies----information-8-c.asp

Is this pic good enough?

Despite having oodles of the critters, they’re surprisingly difficult to photograph, as they will keep moving!

Pretty sure that's a fruit fly. I get them if there's a dodgy brown banana in the bowl.

Or it could possibly be a fungus gnat - they live and breed in houseplants. Putting fine gravel over the compost surface and not over-watering seems to help.

I think you need to work out the source of them.

I'll try vinegar and sugar now and see how that goes.

The fruit bowl has been empty for a while now, and there's only one houseplant (a Christmas cactus, and I don't know if it'll like a brief holiday outdoors)

They definitely flock to stuff that gets left out - DH left the dog food spoon on the side, and it was absolutely crawling with them!

Those are fruit flies. You need to hang the fly papers (the spiral dangly ones) over the thing that attracts the flies, so a compost caddy, bin, fruit bowl, pet food or similar. Then it will catch them all in a few days.

Fruit flies. We've had loads this year

Nope, looks more like a shore fly.

Same look as a fruit fly (Drosophila) but fruit flies have red eyes. Small and pointy would have been a fungus gnat, walks a lot would have been a scuttle fly, small and moth-like would have been a drain fly.

These are often a result of free-standing water... so look outside or nearby for puddles of green water with decaying plant matter, say an old tyre or flower pot, maybe even a leaky pipe or sink???. It's what's called cultural control, easy fix if you remove the habitat they're breeding in.

I've had loads as well, I moved my houseplants outhouse and sprayed with bug spray and have brought them back in one by one as looks like the flies are in the actual soil, just the sight of them makes me itchy even though they don't actually bite

This.

We only ever get them if there is a fruit rotting.
And as soon as you get rid of the source they will slowly die off themselves over a few days.

So find the source- maybe something near the dog bowl? And get rid. Or some juice that has spilled somewhere.

Fly paper not working unfortunately - have it over bin (which has a decent lid) and by the sink/windowsill (where the Christmas cactus is - oh and also some acorns I'm sprouting in damp kitchen roll)

I've had smaller black flies before and they all dutifully flew in to the fly paper - these seem cleverer which is why I'm stumped

You just need one of these @wetotter - the plant on the left has lots of the little buggers in the compost - plant on the right eats them . It's very satisfying and a natural solution.

All sorts of carnivorous plants are available - but the sticky leaved ones are best for compost / fruit flies.

Should I use white, cider or balsamic vinegar?

Caster, soft brown or demerara sugar?

Cider vinegar etc will only work for fruit flies and I don't think that's what you have. Trapping will only work to reduce adults, you need to get rid of the source.

Look around... do you have any rotting fruit or veg? Do you have any open pools of water, puddles, leaking taps or pipes? Any open drains or seage? Any large bags of compost or decaying plant matter?

A fly laid eggs in a bag of hamster sawdust. Tonnes of flies ugh