Drain flies.

[storminabuttercup]

I suspect we have drain flies, each day I’m seeing one or two tiny flies. They are usually spotted in the living room and fly right at me but I think that’s because that’s where we are most of the time, they are driving me bonkers. Brand new bathroom and pipe work so must be kitchen, I’ve done the bicarbonate and vinegar thing down the sink, boiling water, run cleaners through the dishwasher yet still getting them. It’s driving me mad, I can’t put one of the foaming drain cleaners in as it shares drain with dishwasher. I’m after advice on how to get rid of the bloody things! Help!

Fruit flies? Not always just around fruit. Pain at this time of year!

A drain fly infestation won’t be affected by bleach or boiling water-you have to find and destroy the source of their food/breeding site, which is usually manky stagnant water or boggy ground.

We had them after our new bathroom was installed and the fitters knocked a sewage pipe out of alignment and sewage was pooling, for a couple of months, under the kitchen sub floor!
The flies breed really quickly so if you are only spotting a few after a couple of weeks, then it possibly isn’t drain flies at all.
They also fly in a funny zig zag pattern and like to rest on pale surfaces like walls, congregating particularly in the early evening.

The washing up liquid and vinegar traps do work, but will only catch individuals so the life cycle will continue unless their breeding ground is destroyed.

We had to hand dig out all the sewage contaminated soil and replace the broken pipes, so pretty extreme, but it did the trick!

Well I don’t want to tempt fate but after cleaning the sink over flow in the kitchen, using a safe natural thingy drain cleaner (enzymes or something) and putting some of those stick things down the drain I’ve only seen one fly in 6 days.
Going to keep up with that regime see how we get on.

although @RumDo you may be onto something as we have had a weird smell from the roof water drain pipe when we get heavy rain, it was recently replaced as water wasn’t running down it at all (potentially for years) now it’s doing its job im
wondering if it’s disturbing manky stuff down there but then theres no route into the house from there

I seem to remember that they like the insides of drainpipes a lot. They live off the slimy deposits there and lay eggs in it too.
Maybe some stray larvae from before the pipes were replaced have hatched?

It sounds like you’re on top of it though!

Well we went three days again no flies then I’ve killed one each day since… it’s driving me utter bonkers.

husband keeps telling me ‘houses get flies’ but surely not every single day? Or am I being crazy?