In the dreary month of February, Milford residents patiently wait for the approaching signs of spring. Tucked in the cozy areas of our homes we anticipate warmer temperatures and the growth of new life that springtime brings. But we aren’t the only ones waiting for spring to arrive. There are hosts of small, hairy, and oval-shaped insects that are hunkered down in cracks and crannies in and around your home. These six-legged flying pests are waiting until warm temperatures signal the start of their breeding season.
These insects are house flies.
House flies plague homes worldwide. In fact, they are so common, we rarely think twice about these pests. But maybe we should.
House flies notoriously lay their eggs in the most unsanitary places like inside decaying garbage, compost, refuse, and feces. These areas teem with harmful bacteria and pathogens that are then transported by flies into your home. Flies gravitate to our food sources, especially the sweet foods. They land in your glasses of tea, on the bananas in the fruit basket, and perch upon the fresh chicken casserole on the counter. They transport bacteria, fungi, and viruses with them. The house fly can be a vector of over 100 diseases or bacterial infections including salmonellosis, E. coli, and typhoid fever. And some of them bite.
House flies are disgusting. It only takes a house fly several days to complete an entire lifecycle. They have a short lifespan of only 25 days. But during this short life, female house flies can lay hundreds of eggs. She releases a pheromone to attract a male fly just once and this suffices for several batches of eggs. Because flies breed so quickly, DIY techniques like fly strips and bug zappers may not significantly dent the fly population in your home.
The female fly will look for a warm, moist area to deposit her eggs. The maggots, cream-colored fly larvae early in its lifecycle, consume the matter around them, eventually jutting out of their casing and beginning their lives as adult flies. Adult flies can’t chew food, so they vomit saliva that helps break down solid foods. They then use their proboscis like a straw, sucking up the liquified food.
Big Blue Bug Solution’s Tips for House Fly Prevention
As with many pests, the best way to fend off house flies is to prevent them!
There are easy preventive measures you can take to protect your Milford home from being overrun by house flies. Since house flies lay their eggs in disgusting places, you must identify and eliminate these places in and around your property.
- Keep garbage and compost tightly sealed in airtight containers.
- Clean up pet feces in the yard
- seal cat litter indoors as this a commonplace where flies lay eggs.
These environments can become home to thousands of maggots. Typically, flies will enter your home through holes or cracks in screens.
- Repairing broken screens defends your home from infiltration.
- Repairing weather seals around windows and doors block another entry point for house flies.
You know you’ve done a good job when the seal is so tight that it blocks the winter sunlight.
When Prevention Methods Don’t Work
If your fly problem persists, the team of professionals at Big Blue Bug Solutions can help. Contact Big Blue Bug Solutions for advice and assistance on ridding your Milford home of house flies. Our insect control services can guarantee you a bug-free home all year-round.