Being bothered by small flies? Can't seem to find where they are coming from? Small flies can be very bothersome because they seem to appear out of no where and never seem to go away. You have to ask yourself some questions and maybe do some investigating as well. Have you had any leaks lately? If so then the area that is wet could be breeding these flies. Go to the area of the original leak and make sure all is dry. Maybe you have a leak and you don't know it. Check under your sinks, look in the pipe chase closet where the pipes for your bath tub and shower are located, if you have a soil pipe in the basement that runs above ground, look for obvious cracks, check the basement and garage for any free standing water, If you have a fridge that has a catch pan underneath it to catch moisture, check it and make sure it is dry. As you can see there are quite a few areas that can be breeding these flies, and as you can tell already, they love moisture. If you find any of these issues then once the problem is corrected the fly problem will go away shortly there after. The flies can be fruit flies in which case you will want to look under things like your fridge or stove or anywhere a piece of fruit might have fallen and rolled to. These flies can breed in something as small as a teaspoon full of spilled fruit juice. Next take the trash bags out of your trash can s to make sure they inside of the trash can is dry and free of any spills. Again, once the rotten fruit is gone the flies will follow. Look for old and forgotten bags of potatoes or onions. Stuff like that. The other problem can be your plants. If you have alot of live plants in your home and you accidentally over water them, this over wet soil can breed fungus gnats. Check your soil, correct the habit or over watering, and the problem will go away. Small flies can also be coming up from your pipes. The lining of you pipes get gooked up with slime and buildup that breeds these flies. Garbage disposals are notorious for this. One way to check is to simply place paper cups over all your sink drains and then the next morning look to see if any flies were caught under the cup. If not, repeat the process when you go to work and when you come home check under them again. Last and worse case scenario of all is the possibility of a broken pipe under your home. This is the most expensive to correct. If this is the case and the plumber comes out to fix the problem be sure to absolutely insist that they not only fix the pipe, but that they also excavate all the wet soil and replace it with dry fill or your problem will continue forever.
So with all this information, how do you get rid of your small flies? Most of them can be taken care of by correcting the source or moisture. There are also enzymes you can buy like drain gel if they are coming up from your pipes. Correcting the problem is the best way to battle and win the war against the small flies. Good Luck.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
We have recently been inundated by small flies. At first we thought they were fruit flies, but they are a bit too large, and they live a lot longer. They do seem to like the kitchen, bathrooms, and one exterior basement window. We have eliminated sources from garbage and compost. We do not have any leaks, and our house plants are watered infrequently. What are these things, and how do we get rid of them? We are in Portland, OR if that makes any difference.
Sounds like if they are in the kitchen, bathroom and even the basement....might be a broken soil pipe. A plumber can scope the pipe out with a camera to see if that is the case. Cost is not low, but it would eliminate that possibility.
Turns out I spoke too soon! Hubby found an old sack of potatoes in the basement. A few flies linger, but not very many, so we are sure that was the source of the problem.
Post a Comment