# What are these little flies?



## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

We periodically get what I've always assumed were fruit flies in our house a couple different times throughout the year. And i think a few times they were actually fruit flies. But a couple weeks ago we began getting a regular stream of these little relatively slow flying flies throughout our house. See attached zoomed in photo of a few of them laying dead outside my bug zapper and the full photo with retractable pen for scale.

I cannot identify the type of fly or the source. We don't have a lot of fruit in our kitchen, just a couple bananas usually which my wife uses regularly. But these flies aren't present in the kitchen anymore than anywhere else in the house, and I've never actually seen any over by the bananas. I see them by the trash sometimes, and they often fly near food. They don't tend to congregate in any particular area more than others, except possibly the basement. I say possibly because they're hard to see. The only reason I know they're in the basement a lot is because that's where i setup the bug zapper while i work from home down there. They love the bug zapper. I literally just got 4 of them in about 1-2 minutes. 

For the life of me i cannot figure out what these are or how to stop them. I believe they're black with possibly some red. They look and fly similar to fruit flies to the naked eye. They definitely aren't mosquitos. Tried putting bleach down some drains in case they came from there, but that made no difference. Any ideas?









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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

That's hard to see. Look up Phorid flies & see if they have a hump.


I'm not advertising, this just has a good comparison.


https://www.ecopestcontrolpeople.com/flies-management/


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

You mention "relatively slow flying flies" and at least the fruit flies I get occasionally are certainly not slow. I'm not a pro but for fruit flies I use cider vinegar with a small drop of dish detergent, helps to break the surface tension of the liquid to they fall in.

Might try a sticky tape to see if you can catch a whole one, pictures didn't show a lot.

I use a Dynatrap which uses a uv light and fan to catch whatever gets curious. Insects then die in a captive container at the bottom. It works much better than I had expected and no zapping. Zapping is ok for me until I would catch a big moth and have to smell the burning.

Bud


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

There aren't many Pest guys that come by, but, there's a lot of info on the Chatroom.


Phorid flies can indicate a leak on a concrete pad that can be colonized by the flies.


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## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

Nik333 said:


> That's hard to see. Look up Phorid flies & see if they have a hump.
> 
> 
> I'm not advertising, this just has a good comparison.
> ...


Hard to see in person, but they don't seem to look quite like phorid flies. It doesn't look like they have as big and flat of wings. They also tend to usually be airborne, not on surfaces. Though in the past we've had flies in the master bath than love hanging out on the crown moulding and ceiling and do fly but also sit around a lot. These flies seem different. There's not really many to speak of in the master bath. I see one here and there, but it's usually flying around me.

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## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

Bud9051 said:


> You mention "relatively slow flying flies" and at least the fruit flies I get occasionally are certainly not slow. I'm not a pro but for fruit flies I use cider vinegar with a small drop of dish detergent, helps to break the surface tension of the liquid to they fall in.
> 
> Might try a sticky tape to see if you can catch a whole one, pictures didn't show a lot.
> 
> ...


We actually do have sticky tape light traps so I'll check those in a bit. Just killed another in the spare bathroom and took this photo. Sorry, kinda broke him in half lol.

We have used the soap+wine and soap+vinegar method in the past with success, but the last few times it's caught nothing. I'll have to check with the wife to see how much soap she used, cause I'm wondering if it was too much.









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## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

Nik333 said:


> There aren't many Pest guys that come by, but, there's a lot of info on the Chatroom.
> 
> 
> Phorid flies can indicate a leak on a concrete pad that can be colonized by the flies.


We had some pretty serious roof and fascade leaks a few years ago, but both have been sealed and I haven't seen any indication of more leaks since then.

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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

No action at the vinegar or wine trap tells you it probably isn't a variety of fruit fly.

Your last picture looks good enough to email to the state of other bug experts.

Bud


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## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

Bud9051 said:


> No action at the vinegar or wine trap tells you it probably isn't a variety of fruit fly.
> 
> Your last picture looks good enough to email to the state of other bug experts.
> 
> Bud


Wife says she isn't sure how much soap she used, so it's possible she used too much.

Here's a bunch of flies that got caught in the sticky trap. House flies for scale ha ha









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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/flies-in-the-home-5-502/


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

The second from the bottom of the last photos you submitted look like Flesh Flies. Big & lumbering, easy to kill because they're slow. They come with dead animals.


Take a look at the fungus gnats, too.


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## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

Nik333 said:


> The second from the bottom of the last photos you submitted look like Flesh Flies. Big & lumbering, easy to kill because they're slow. They come with dead animals.
> 
> 
> Take a look at the fungus gnats, too.


****, they def look like the phorid flies in those photos. Or possibly the fungus knats. I'm gonna dump all kinds of **** down these drains!

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## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

rfehr613 said:


> ****, they def look like the phorid flies in those photos. Or possibly the fungus knats. I'm gonna dump all kinds of **** down these drains!
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk


A little update. I picked up some liquid drain cleaner and dumped a good amount in the master bath shower and the kitchen sink drains. The master bath was ****ing nasty, and a few super tiny bugs crawled out when i pulled off the grate. Baby phorid flies maybe? 

I was going to also use the liquid drain cleaner in the basement bath shower where the HVAC condensate pump has been draining, but then I remembered there's an ejector pump down there and decided i probably shouldn't run liquid drain cleaner through it. I did pour a good amount of straight bleach into it though and then after a few minutes ran the water until the ejector pump ran 3-4 times.

I didn't see many flies, but i also didn't work from home Saturday through Monday. Yesterday I didn't really see any all day either while working from home, but then around like 6pm a bunch came out of nowhere. I turned on the zapper and got like 5 in maybe 30min.

I also put out a dish of apple cider vinegar with exactly 1 drop of soap in it. It caught zero flies after being out for several days by the trash can then by our fruit. Apparently last night there was 1 single fly in it when my wife poured it out.

I also finally rerouted my HVAC condensate pump line to the washer drain tonight, so the basement shower now won't be perpetually wet. If anything is living in there it won't last long considering we never use that shower ever.

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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

rfehr613 said:


> I also put out a dish of apple cider vinegar with exactly 1 drop of soap in it. It caught zero flies after being out for several days by the trash can then by our fruit. Apparently last night there was 1 single fly in it when my wife poured it out.



Different kinds of flies like different things.



"If It's Decaying, They Will *Eat* It!
Around homes, tiny *phorid* fly larvae can be found feeding on all kinds of gross stuff: dead animals, rotting *fruit* or vegetables, dead insects, and animal feces including human sewage. We look for them in clogged drains and dirty garbage cans, too.Jun 8, 2015"



Phorid Flies Have Terrible Dining Habits! - Colonial Pest Control


It's just a quote, I'm not recommending this company.


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## rfehr613 (Apr 29, 2020)

Nik333 said:


> Different kinds of flies like different things.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah, hard to say if those things are coming from the drain or from potential dead mice in the walls. I just dumped a bunch of bleach down the drain in the basement bath again and ran the water on hot for a good 5-7min after the bleach sat. When i was dumping the bleach, one of those flies flew right in my face. Not sure if that means they're coming from there or not. Seems an unlikely source considering that the constant flow of condensate was basically keeping the ejector pump on a regular cycle. My wife does use that toilet a bit, but I'd think the regular flushing of the ejector pump would basically eliminate the possibility of anything living in there.

If these things are coming from the mice, we're in for a challenge in stopping it. We've been trying to stop these mice for years. They seem to come and go, but they're pretty smart. They are able to get the PB off regular Victor snap traps with ease, without even triggering the trap. I caught one a while back using a more advanced clamp trap, but so far I've caught none since putting those traps back out a month or so ago. Those brazen little *******s actually go under and sometimes on top of our couch cushions. We sit on the couch all the time too; they don't care. Got some mothballs stuffed back in the couch again, but i don't know if it's working. I need to check under the cushions again. 

When i was working on the condensate line yesterday, i noted new rodent activity in the HVAC closet, so I need to put a trap in there. A couple years ago I went around sealing all exterior holes with steel wool and caulk. I do need to check again to see if there's any new holes outside. The problem that i think we're having is that the house to our left is more or less abandoned, and the house to our right was under construction for a months recently (now rented out). There is access between properties through the joist pockets in the shared brick walls. Our entire house was sprayed with installation too, so mice can very easily climb from floor to floor on the insulation. That leaves so many essentially unfixable locations of entry. We'd have to tear open all our walls to fix. Honest to God, our next course of action is to get a cat lol. Not that we don't like cats or are solely getting a cat to scare away mice, but it is actually something we will be pursuing once the shelters open back up.

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