# Drain Flies....HELP



## Mermer (Aug 15, 2013)

I am seeing a lot of posts about this and I need the same help. I have drain flies in my apartment an it is driving me nuts. I have become obsessed with finding where they are coming from. They stress me out! I will come home to about 26 of them. 

So far, I have taped off everything, sink, toilet tank, tub, both over flows, back of toilet etc. My manager has came in for about 3 weeks and poured gel down my drains, had a plumber come in and power washed my drains and snaked them I still have them. The crazy thing is they are not sticking to the tap. I read that you can not fully tape it or they will not get the draft of air that brings them in, so then I taped "lightly" still nothing. *They appear out of no where*, I have sat in my bathroom waiting for the next one to appear....it is crazy. I have no windows, no cracks in my floors etc. I even went as far as taping off my fan, still nothing.

I am at the point where I want to move out, but I am not sure what my rights are in this apartment, I just moved in. The person before me had the same problem and they did not disclose the fly problem to me. My place is infested and it pisses me off that I can not come home and relax. I spend the first 30 minutes killing them and then cleaning my walls, sometimes I just want to cry. It really upsets me, the owners said I could break my lease, but I am a single mom it is not that easy. I pay good money for my place. Has anyone ever taken legal action for this or called the city to see if they are violating any bldg. codes? Supposable I am the only person that has them. 

Thanks for listening and your help.


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## chrisdo987 (Aug 12, 2012)

Mixture of bleach and water would kill them and eliminate their breeding place. Hope that helps.


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## ben's plumbing (Oct 6, 2011)

Mermer said:


> I am seeing a lot of posts about this and I need the same help. I have drain flies in my apartment an it is driving me nuts. I have become obsessed with finding where they are coming from. They stress me out! I will come home to about 26 of them.
> 
> So far, I have taped off everything, sink, toilet tank, tub, both over flows, back of toilet etc. My manager has came in for about 3 weeks and poured gel down my drains, had a plumber come in and power washed my drains and snaked them I still have them. The crazy thing is they are not sticking to the tap. I read that you can not fully tape it or they will not get the draft of air that brings them in, so then I taped "lightly" still nothing. *They appear out of no where*, I have sat in my bathroom waiting for the next one to appear....it is crazy. I have no windows, no cracks in my floors etc. I even went as far as taping off my fan, still nothing.
> 
> ...


 they are responable to provide a safe and clean place to live in....bug infestation is not a clean place at all ...explain to landlord your concerns give reasonable time to correct.. if they don't inform them of your reason for leaving .. tell them see ya in court....make sure you document the issues.....just a thougth if you are the only one who has them it should be easy to track it down.....ben sr


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## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

One suggestion, get some painter's drop-cloth plastic sheeting (the really thin kind) and tape off the doorways. At least then you'd be able to narrow down which room has the infestation. 

Not very convenient, but probably the only way to at least get an idea where to start in solving this very nasty problem. 

It's entirely possible there's some other sort of source for them. Perhaps there are other leaks or plumbing problems that aren't immediately visible.

I'd check with your state/local gov't to see what your options are on getting out of the lease.


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## romex1220 (Jun 26, 2013)

You might have a bad glue joint in your vent stack or maybe a defective aav


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

Often they are breeding in the overflow port on a sink or tub----pouring a bleach solution directly down the overflow port will clean out the crud and the bugs--


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## 1mom427 (Jul 4, 2018)

Hi, I live in an apt. Bldg also. I'm also a single mom.. I live on the bottom floor.
I've had this issue on & off for 3yrs. Talk about wanting to cry; I do, Often.. And talk about being pissed off, OMG.. I called the Board of Health and they had told me that as long as my apartment complex was doing "something" to help with the problem or rid the problem there was nothing that I could do legally.. 
The plumbers have found that there was a leak in a pipe underneath my neighbor's toilet so they busted her floor up in her bathroom for the toilet up and thousands and thousands of drain flies came up out of there and ever since they've been coming through my vents and I'm talking about my registers that the air conditioning and Heat come through I was putting tape over my drains and never did I have a drain fly come get stuck on the tape but they hang all around my windows because I know by reading up on them on YouTube that they look for the light and that's why they hang around all the windows my sliding glass door anytime you turn a light bulb on it's crazy it's so freaking crazy I have two Electric fly swatters SMH I am constantly killing them and so is my daughter who is 31 years old and the maintenance man have put the foam stuff down all my dreams but I know they're not in my drains I heard this guy on YouTube say that they were coming through his Vents and that's exactly where I think they're coming through in my apartment my whole side of the building has then and I'm not paying rent as of this month my rent is due tomorrow July 5th 2018 but instead of paying rent to my apartment complex I am going to the bank and opening an escrow account and putting my rent in there until this problem is solved that's what I was told to do and that's the only thing I can do legally and they won't /can't throw you out for doing this... My boyfriend is going to put screens inside of each of my registers to see if that helps preventing them from getting in.. Sometimes I think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown over these things.. I get so stressed out over these disgusting drain flies, I have to vacuum their dead bodies up every day they're all over my window sills-dead, it's so disgusting... I'm so tired of coming home from work everyday and having to vacuum and that's usually when I'm crying or when I'm looking around all of my rooms in my apartment and especially them hanging around in my bathroom when I get a shower they're on the walls and I'm constantly killing them and scrubbing my tub...,but the 2-1/2 years that I kept tape over all of my drains, not once did I ever have a drain fly on the tape, (and I knew to only tape 3/4 of the drain's that way there was the air flow the drain flies needed or they wouldn't travel) it's so disgusting... My apt. Complex knows that as long as they're doing "something" that there is ""nothing"" that any of us tenants can do to them, and that is a shame.. Actually sickens me... smh.. I guess they don't care because they're not living with them, them as in the drain flies, I mean..
I hoe some of this helps someone, or maybe someone could help me..
Thank you in advance.. & thanx for reading...


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