Invasion of the Fat Flies

Yes and it SUCKS!

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:03 AM

Ew. Amityville Horror. Watch out if you start seeing pigs with red eyes.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:03 AM

YES! We had 3 very persistent flies in our apartment for about 3 weeks. Ours were not so fat or so slow, and it took ages to manage to swat them. We too thought it was the wrong season. Blech. Glad they've moved on to your house, Mr. B! :P

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:20 AM

Last time I saw a scene like that was in the men's room at Mars bar circa 1991. I guess the flies were getting fat on junkie blood. Here, perhaps, they're feasting on hipsters.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:21 AM

That's just gross! One of my biggest annoyances are flies. There must be a nest somewhere....if I were you Mr. B I would have a very good look around.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:25 AM

I had one of those in my apartment a couple days ago. I noticed it right as I was going to bed and decided to deal with it later. The next morning I turned on the halogen light in the living room and soon smoke started pouring out. Yup, poor sucker was instantly attracted to the light and fried himself. When I turned it off to get it out of there, I couldn't believe how big it actually was!

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:28 AM

Most likely a rat died somewhere nearby; probably from rat poison and fly are feeding and laying eggs in the rat's carcas. Find the dead rat, and you'll find the source of those flys.

It's not the light, dude.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:41 AM

I've had one of those giant ones flying around for the last 2 days. Just a few days before that we were finally able to kill a normal one that had been in the apt. for 2 wks. No dead rats around. I swear.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 10:52 AM

The night before Thanksgiving we got bitten by a mosquito in our bedroom! We woke up from it in the middle of the night and spotted the little #@%$@er. Isn't it too cold for mosquitoes already?

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 11:37 AM

they are around every winter.
one good thing is they are much slower than regular summer flies --- easy to swat em!

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 11:38 AM

vodooo

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 12:20 PM

The dead rat comment is correct, these things mean something died close by, and they are feasting on it. They are gross.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 1:37 PM

Yes, there may be a dead rat or somesuch near the outside of your house but, more likely, you have a dead mouse in the house. It may have smelled for a day or two...and not even that badly and is now desiccated.

The maggots would have done away with most of the flesh and what was left dried up.

Can be hard to find the mouse...if a neighbor put down/had an exterminator put down rat poison or somesuch recently, mice eating it may have left that building searching for water. The current rodenticides often make the rodent very thirsty (so they presumably search for water, leave the structure and die outside). When you have an old brick party wall from the 1800s, mice can make it through from one house to another.

They can die in all sorts of lovely places including wedged in layers of stacked, folded clothes. This happened to us a couple of years ago. Smelled something odd for a day or two walking by a room we barely go in. It was more of sickly sweet but feted smell that disappeared after a couple of days when we started having flies piling up on the windows in that room. I went searching for what I supposed at that point was a dead mouse and found it. Not pretty but not smelly at that point.

We also experienced the dead rat scenario this fall...somehow a couple of the fat flies came into the house, maybe when the doors were open. When I discovered the rat outside (wedged into a tight spot), there were many flies on and many maggots it...it wasn't fun…and SMELLED. Ugh. But disposed of. Flies disappeared immediately of course.

FG/TGL

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 1:46 PM

This happened to me a few years back. I saw a couple of huge black flys in my apt. I went out for an hour or so and came back to find hundreds of them in the main hallway. It was nasty.

They seemed to be coming from the skylight at the top of the stairs and I assumed maybe a bird had died up there and all the maggots hatched at the same time?

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 5:25 PM

I used to get them each year in my place upstate. Simply awful. No matter how many died, more came alive! It finally dawned on me to call the exterminator. Apparently you need to kill off the eggs (that are laid in the ground) before they hatch. Otherwise it is wait till next year.

So now, each Tuesday after Labor Day, my new best friend comes and does the deed. Haven't had a problem since.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 5:42 PM

Did someone spray honey at that spot on the glass and muntin? Why are they all hanging out like that in a group?

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 6:47 PM

Do you live by a chinese restaurant?

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 7:19 PM

7:19 PM, racism's not "cutesy". It's tired and offensive.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 9:52 PM

A few winters back we had a problem with large amounts of big flies on the inside window sill in one of our bedrooms. It turned out that 2 squirrels had frozen to death in the roof/gutter area.

We had exterminators come for the flies, but they wouldn't go away. They finally disappeared once roofer found the dead squirrels.

If they come back you may want to check for a dead animal.

sorry.

Posted by: guest at November 29, 2007 11:29 PM