Flies in new house! How do I find and eliminate the cause?

[HystericalDinosaur]

We bought a house a few months ago and did a complete renovation (apart from kitchen which was only painted/refloored).

Have noticed whenever we open garden door/windows we immediately end up with about three flies in the living room, dining room and downstairs bathroom. Less in the kitchen.

We are clean and I have been tidying and cleaning surfaces religiously. We also had the house professionally cleaned when we moved in.

Some of them don’t buzz, they just seem to hover, bobbing up and down in the middle of the room.

I’ve tried making a trap from instructions online, but they’ve ignored it, it’s so hot we have to have the windows open, but having only just finished the renovation (and so desperately wanting to breathe a sigh of relief and relax) they’re really getting me down.

The previous owners were not clean - could it just be the flies know this as a food ridden house from before?

What else can we do? I’m desperate. I’ve ordered some fly paper, but I want to eliminate the cause.

I have a similar problem, new house and more flies than I'd wish! I think though that from the sound of your post it's not an excessive amount (although I understand why it feels it) and as it sounds like they aren't all the same type of fly I would put it down to the time of year unfortunately. I've asked three different people this week about flies (I know, so interesting) and they've all said they have the same problem. We can't all be living in a dump!

But drastic but could you get temporary screens to go over doors and windows? And just to be safe have you checked drains, guttering etc for blockages which could store flies nests?

(Just to be clear I have no understanding of where flies live. I assume nests? Or maybe dens or horrible lairs?)

Do you have an open chimney? We had this at our previous home, unfortunately a bird had died in the chimney and the flies were caused by that. Had the sweep round to clear and cap off the chimney so it couldn’t happen again. The flies were odd, really quiet and quite dopey if you understand what I mean. It really got me down at the time too. It’s nothing to do with cleanliness. I hope you get it sorted out soon, you need to find out where they are coming from.

We live rurally and get them in the summer but we’ve always had a few wherever we’ve lived - and we’re very clean. If you haven’t already, buy a fly swat, you can usually get them in pound shops, it won’t eliminate the cause but makes it much easier to get rid of them.

I find that a citrusy candle keeps them away - I have a grapefruit one from Muji at the moment.

I think it's just a time of year & having windows & doors open thing. We've noticed a few at the moment too.

I'm in a constant state of tea towel flapping at the moment , no sooner have I swatted one fly , his bloody mate buzzes in. I hate them , horrible buzzing idiots who keep nose diving into windows when 2mm away is an opening that they could fly out of . Or the other type that fly in random circles in the middle of the room - just pick a direction and fly that way for gods sake !

I just saw this on a local fb page, hope it helps...

Red Top Fly Trap available online/Amazon etc absolutely brilliant. Cumulative benefit too.

My guess, and it's no more than a guess, is that you have some sort of nest or a dead thing rotting quietly in your garden. Do you have a compost heap, or decking or big plants that something might have died under? Our old cat used to keep a mouse morgue under a particular bush and a poo area in another. Disgusting creature :)

I doubt the flies are attracted into your house - I struggle to believe they have a collective memory passed down the generations. It's more likely you have a concentration of them somewhere outside your house, so you get a few in by accident.

I'm not even sure 3 flies is that many really, this time of year. Is your current garden similar to your previous one? We seem to get more than our fair share of hornets. I haven't spotted a hornets' nest nearby but I bet there is one.

We have the same problem and a new house too.
I was dispatched to purchase a fly screen for the back doorway after being driven demented.
Obviously DP still hasn't bothered his lazy arse to put it up yet
Have you got pets? We have twatcat and moving his scoff outside has really helped.

Are you sure they're coming in from outside and not living in the house somewhere?
Every year around this time, cluster flys start appearing in our and our neighbours home (semi-detached)
The loft used to be worst effected, so over the winter I installed one of those battery operated automatic dispensers (like they have in public toilets) that lets out a puff of cluster fly spray. That's dramatically reduced the problem to just the odd fly now and again.

Check your window frames - we had some living in our UPVC window frames so every time windows were opened they'd come in. Bastards.

Google cluster flies. They are a specific type