Your local Orkin technician is trained to help manage cluster flies and similar pests. Since every building or home is different, your Orkin technician will design a unique fly treatment program for your situation. Orkin can provide the right solution to keep cluster flies in their place Cluster flies are capable of crawling through small openings in the walls of a structure.
These flies enter homes looking for overwintering sites during the cold months. Cluster flies prefer warm areas, so homeowners often find them flying around houses on sunny days in the winter and late fall months. Entering living spaces by way of electrical outlets or baseboards, the pests take shelter in attics and walls to hibernate, awaiting the arrival of warmer spring weather.
On sunny winter days, the wall voids may become warm and the cluster flies will try to move toward light. Although cluster flies are observed buzzing and congregating at windows, screens may prove ineffective in preventing their entrance. Cluster flies do not carry diseases and will not cause extensive damage to homes. However, the pests may darken walls or windows with their droppings and may attract other insects if they die inside the wall voids. Newly hatched maggots grab onto earthworms as they slither by and burrow into the worm to feed.
Four to five weeks are required to complete a life cycle. The worm does not usually survive the experience. There are up to four generations of cluster flies in Michigan each year. There is no easy remedy for cluster fly problems. It is practically impossible to kill enough of them to make a difference once they have found their way into wall voids, ceilings voids and attics.
When temperatures warm in the spring, the flies attempt to find their way back outside to lay eggs. Many of these find their way into the living areas of the house rather than outside.
Aggressive and costly insecticide applications will only temporarily reduce the number of flies inside the home because it is nearly impossible to treat every hidden area that may be harboring insects. Sealing exterior cracks and holes on the outside of the house with caulk, especially south and west facing walls, can help to reduce the number of flies that find their way inside. Sealing cracks around electrical outlet boxes, switches and light fixtures, and around window and baseboard molding on the inside walls will help keep the flies trapped within the walls.
In older homes with double-hung windows equipped with pulleys, flies commonly enter living areas through the pulley opening. Masking tape applied over the opening will keep flies from entering through this route. Indoor aerosol insecticides are effective in killing exposed flies during the winter and spring months.
The beginning of a typical cluster fly lifecycle begins after the adults leave their over-wintering sites in the spring and lay eggs on the soil that contains earthworms. The eggs are mostly laid in the soil cracks.
After 3 — 4 days these eggs hatch and the maggots larvae enter the body cavities of earthworms. These larvae then feed on the host earthworms for few days. The maggot stage in cluster flies lasts in about 13 to 22 days.
After this they molt and pupate in the soil. Pupal stage lasts 11 — 14 days after which adult flies come out and are ready to start the cycle again. The total lifecycle of a cluster fly is of 30 — 50 days. Below features can help you to distinguish between a house or bottle fly from a cluster fly:.
Cluster flies 8 — 10 mm are larger in size than a house fly 6 — 7 mm but smaller than a bottle fly 10 — 14 mm. Cluster flies are a bit darker and have dark and light chequered pattern on their abdomen which house flies or bottle flies do not have.
Cluster flies have short yellow or golden coloured hairs on their thorax. In appearance, bottle flies can be easily distinguished from the other two types of flies, as they have a greenish or a bluish metallic coloured body. Another important aspect that can differentiate between a cluster fly and a house fly is the speed of movement.
House and bottle flies are lightening quick whereas cluster flies are slow and sluggish. Cluster flies enter homes in order to search for a warmer place to hibernate whereas houseflies enter human houses in search of food and water. The best way to avoid Cluster flies is by mechanical exclusion.
Cluster flies can enter your homes through the smallest cracks around door and window frames or through any other tiny unsealed opening. Recommended Reading : How to get rid of house flies outside.
In this section, we will see how you can get rid of cluster flies after they have gained access to the interiors of your home. In such situations you could use the following methods:. Once the cluster flies have entered your home and you have identified the infested site, then this is the best method you can use to kill them.
Scientific studies have indicated that indoor aerosol pyrethrin based insecticides are quite effective in killing exposed flies during the winter and spring months. These pyrethrin based insecticides are prepared from natural plant extracts and hence are safe to be used indoors. Such pyrethrin based insecticides are also safe for pets and are effective against a vast majority of flies and pests.
But please make sure to clean the dead insects because there is a possibility that these dead flies may attract carpet beetles that will first feed on the dead insects and later attack woollens. You can check out this pyrethrin based insecticide at Amazon. As we know that, cluster flies enter our houses in order to find some places where they can hibernate and hence during this period they are slow and sluggish.
And because they are sluggish you could easily use a mini vacuum to catch them.
0コメント