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July 20, 2007
Fly invasion - from where?
I live in a walk up brownstone. I have killed over 40 flies in the past 4 days. No food in apartment. Drains always closed. Kitchen sink no longer used, filled with small amount of water since finding giant roach crawling up - very dry clean small apt. Anyone have a similar experience? How did you solve it? Renovation in apartment below. I am using 3 rolls of tape but they are all empty. Flies are dying because of a hot shot poison stick - but they are still coming. Any advice much appreciated.
Comments
giant roaches are called water bugs or palmetto bugs. much discussion of late on this forum. they are attracted to water. filling your sink will only invite them.
check out your hardware store for the water bugs - they do make a "roach motel" type contraption for those.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 20, 2007 1:00 PM
from original poster -
thanks for the comment, some clarification and correction -
1. my issue is with flies
2. filling the stopper with a slight amount of water creates an airtight seal preventing roaches from crawling up
Posted by: Anonymous at July 20, 2007 1:53 PM
I bought one of those flycatcher bags for my backyard because every time I opened the patio door a cloud of flies ended up inside. It has an attractant that activates when mixed with water F#*!ing amazing. The thing filled to the brim with dead flies in a week. I don't know where they were all coming from. Maybe its just a coincidence but but it seems much better now having somewhat decimated their numbers. I might not use it inside though, because the attractant smells a little. If you or your landlord have outdoor space where they might be coming from, it may help.
Posted by: anon at July 20, 2007 2:35 PM
The same thing happened to me in my old rental. It used to happen once a year. In my case, I lived in the garden rental and was told by the super that some small animal must have died. There was literally 100-150 flies over the course of 3 days. They died off eventually. Good luck --I know it's gross.
Posted by: q A at July 20, 2007 3:54 PM
I posted a few days ago about the same thing. I had a BBQ in my backyard and the flies were overwhelming. Same thing - no obvious fly attractors in the yard prior to the party. Perhaps it was anon 2:35 who suggested the flybags. I tried to buy them but couldn't find them. I bought some fly strips but am still to use them. I am not sure what is going on. Is this a July phenonomon? I don't know but it is really foul.
Posted by: anon at July 20, 2007 4:22 PM
I posted a few days ago about the same thing. I had a BBQ in my backyard and the flies were overwhelming. Same thing - no obvious fly attractors in the yard prior to the party. Perhaps it was anon 2:35 who suggested the flybags. I tried to buy them but couldn't find them. I bought some fly strips but am still to use them. I am not sure what is going on. Is this a July phenonomon? I don't know but it is really foul.
Posted by: anon at July 20, 2007 4:22 PM
It seems around this time of year those awful flies seem to be more prevalent... it might be stating the obvious but check that your screens are tightly closed and there are no holes that they can make their way through.
I'm on the top floor and I have seen more big flies the past few weeks on the outside of my screens... so far, the nasty things have been
kept out... but they are buzzing around more than usual.
Probably the heat and humidity and regular
garbage... they're being incubated in the garbage.
Don't see them in the winter...
Posted by: bren at July 20, 2007 6:55 PM
I also posted about flies last week. Thanks for the flybag suggestion. Sounds disgusting and, hopefully, effective.
Someone had suggested as a comment to my earlier post that I move the trashcan farther away from the front door. I'll try that. I think that's a really good idea. I have a feeling that some of the flies are sneaking in when I come in the house - or leave the door open when I'm watering the flowers.
I also thought my house was well sealed - no holes in the screens or anything. But this week I started looking much more closely at the bottoms of the windows and realized there were some gaps that weren't obviously perceptible because of the angle. You might want to check that out as well.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 21, 2007 11:18 AM
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