Pest control - should I just burn my house down??

[wrongmonth]

I think I've got a gnat or fly infestation. I first noticed them during the summer, but I thought they'd disappear when the weather got cooler. Some days I’ve seen none while other days there have been quite a few. It's definitely gotten worse in the last few days and today I managed to kill about 10 of them. They’re not drain flies or fruit flies. I cleaned the drains just to be safe though and there are no obvious leaks. I don’t have any plants either. They keep flying in my face and are very quick. I also spotted a tiny worm / maggot (WTF?) on the ceiling last night. Not sure if it’s related. They’re driving me nuts and it’s just minging! I’m not thrilled about having to pay for pest control but what other options do I have?

Does anyone have experience of these little feckers or what I can do?

Check your house insurance mines includes home emergency which pays for pest control. It doesn’t count as a claim so doesn’t effect renewals

I’ve only really got experience of fruit flies , I trap them in a bowl with squashed fruit or wine in, with clingfilm stretched over with pinpricks in… they get in but can’t get out. I’m guessing if they aren’t fruit flies this winter work tho.

have you tried the nuclear option of spraying shit loads of fly spray just before you leave the house? I did this when a new plant brought loads of flies with it. It stinks and I’m pretty sure it’s not great to breathe it in… but I basically emptied 2 whole cans (wearing a mask) all over the house and left for the day. It was very effective.

Is there a chance something has gone off somewhere? My dm had heaps of tiny flies and I finally tracked down the source, a bag of rose hip seed boxes which she'd collected and allowed to rot

Are the bluebottles? If so I’d think somethings died in the house (a mouse or rat or squirrel or something), which will be where they are coming from.

They look exactly like these little flies. I think fungus gnats? 😬 I have no idea where they’re coming from as I don’t have any plants in the house!

Do you have rice, cereals or flour stored somewhere that's been there a while ? We had this once it was actually some kind of larvae hatching to tiny flies that then crawled out of a bag of rice. It wasn't obvious because the rice on top looked normal - but at the bottom of the bag it was full of larvae.

And then just come home and Hoover them all up??

This is going to give me nightmares

I had an infestation of these tiny flies in the conservatory.

I bought a load of those sticky flypaper things that look like shapes, animals, flowers etc. They are coloured yellow.

I would get some of these or some other flypaper and use that. Put it near where the flies are and eventually you will catch them all.

Go to amazon Blooven. You might need some masking tape if you want to stick on walls ceiling.

We have the same exact problem - started couple of weeks ago! Numbers are dwindling now, we’ve just kept windows open (and smacked them down when we could). I have a houseplant but that is pretty dry and no ufos near it.
Hoping to find some answers here.

btw, I saw the same when we went out to dinner yesterday so perhaps it is a wider problem?!

They could be drain flies if your drains under the house has broken. Your household insurance might pay for the work.

Once I had cluster flies about this time of year as they came in via the bricks. But they were just on a windowsill.

I swear they arrive on bananas.

Do you have indoor plants? They probably live in the soil. You need to dry the soil out as much as you can. They won't live in dry soil. When you do water, water from the bottom (not too much water because you dont want root rot). You can mix 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide with 3 parts water and drench the soil with it. It'll fizz and kill all the larvae.

You've said it's not from plants, but this is what my plants get and they are treated with nematodes.

I completely missed the bit where you said you had no plants! They look exactly like the arseholes that lived in mine though!

😂
Yeah, I had some of these arseholes too a few years back when I made the BIG mistake of keeping an open bag of compost in my conservatory. A few weeks later I had about half a million of these flies!

Yep, just come home and hover up all the little fly bodies.

I did this twice in a week when I had an infestation, and it was sorted.

i second the comment about bananas… I’ve now started washing my bananas before putting g them in the fruit bowl (feels a bit insane but I haven’t had any major fly issues since doing this so feels worth it ).

in the summer I wash all the fruit before putting in the bowl. Otherwise I get a fruit fly bonanza… I’ve got a special fruit wash from Lakeland, but rinsing them in water is probably fine too.

I had a similar issue last summer and ended up calling a pest control company in Boise because the DIY stuff just wasn’t cutting it. They did a full inspection, figured out where everything was coming from, and used treatments that were safe around my pets. The best part was the ongoing quarterly plan, which kept things from flaring up again. It saved me a lot of stress and repair costs.