House flies are not only a nuisance pest but are known carriers of over 100 different disease organisms. Any home or building can be plagued by house flies, but when your fly problem is more than you can manage with a flyswatter, call Adam’s.
Your Adam’s pest management professional will use a combination of proven techniques to exterminate even the toughest house fly infestation. We start by confirming that the flies in question are house flies, because different fly species may require different treatment protocols. Next we locate the breeding area. Any relief will be short-lived, if we don’t manage the source of the flies. Then, depending on your situation, Adam’s exterminates house flies using appropriate treatment approaches, such as fly baits, traps, or an EPA-approved insecticide applications.
Adam’s Pest Control has a dedicated team of representatives who are driven to protect your home or business and can answer any questions that you may have.
The common house fly is a general nuisance because of their persistent efforts to land on us and our food. The house fly gets its name from being the most common fly found in and around homes. House flies can be found throughout the world.
Adult house flies are about 1/8” to ¼” in length, with the female usually larger.
House flies are dull gray in color with the abdomen usually is pale, especially at the base.
The thorax has 4 narrow black longitudinal stripes on the dorsum.
The house fly’s face has two velvety stripes; silver above and gold below.
House flies have sponging mouthparts and large red eyes.
Mature larvae (house fly maggots) are about ¼” to 3/8” in length, eyeless, legless, and taper toward the head from a large, rounded rear segment.
The house fly larvae are oily looking and creamy in color.
The head of the common house fly larvae is characterized by 1 pair of dark hooks.
Yes. The common house fly is not only a nuisance pest, but of greater concern is that it is a potential carrier of disease organisms; having been found to harbor over 100 different pathogenic organisms and about 2 million bacteria on its body.
House flies are a significant public health concern and are responsible for the spread of many filth related bacteria and viruses that cause conditions such as diarrhea, salmonella, E. coli, cholera, food poisoning, yaws, dysentery, and eye infections.
House flies pick up disease agents while feeding on animal feces, animal body secretions, or kitchen waste, which are then transmitted when they land on our food.
House flies can leave regurgitation and dark fecal spots on wall surfaces.
These spots can be quite noticeable in large infestations and on light colored surfaces, where house flies prefer to rest.
Flies may enter a structure attracted to the interior light.
Flies first come inside looking for food and a place to breed.
House flies get in through cracks in your walls or through open doors and windows.
Be sure to seal all entry points and repair any loose or missing screens.
Once inside, house flies will lay eggs wherever they find an opportunity. This could be in an open garbage can or possibly a dead animal in the wall or ceiling.
A pest management professional can identify the source of the flies and keep them from coming back.
House flies have no teeth and cannot chew; therefore they only feed on liquids which they "sponge" and "suck" up to eat.
In order to eat "solid" food, the house fly regurgitates digestive fluid onto the solid food to make slurry, so it can then "sponge" and "suck" up the liquefied solid.
This is pretty disgusting when you consider that the fly that is regurgitating, sponging and sucking on your cookie might have just come from doing the same on some animal feces in the back yard, thereby spreading germs.
House flies have a complete metamorphosis: egg - larva - pupa - adult.
The female house fly will lay eggs singularly but in clusters of 75-150 in a variety of moist, rotting, fermenting organic matter including animal manure, dead animals, accumulated clippings, garbage, spilled animal feeds, and soil contaminated with any of the above.
A female house fly can lay more than 500 eggs in her lifetime.
Eggs hatch within a day.
The young house fly larvae burrow into the breeding medium and complete their development in 3 days to several weeks depending on the temperature and the quality of food materials.
Larvae will migrate to drier portions of the breeding medium to pupate for 3 days to 4 weeks before emerging as adult house flies.
Under optimum conditions, house flies can complete their lifecycles in less than 7 days.
Adult flies can live for several days to 40 days or longer, depending on temperature, humidity, and the availability of food.
There are more than 300 000 species of flies, of which the house fly is the most common indoors.
House flies can be found all over the world in the same habitats where people can survive.
Researchers believe house flies developed 65 million years ago.
Flies are interested in food, heat, and sex.
House flies can migrate up to 20 miles, but prefer to stay within 2 miles of their breeding site.
Since house flies like it about 82 degrees Fahrenheit, they are attracted to insect light traps. They see the ultra violet light (which humans can't see) and are attracted to it for heat.
During the day, house flies will rest at a height of less than 5 feet. At night they rest above that height.
House flies can scale walls and walk on the ceiling because after landing they produce a sticky substance that acts like glue.
The fly has omnidirectional sight; each of the fly’s eyes have four thousand separate lenses – eight thousand in all – giving the fly the ability to see in many directions at once.
Even with compound eyes, house flies have poor eyesight.
Flies can see movement better than color.
House flies use their sense of smell, which is located on their antennas, to locate food.
Flies can smell food more than 750 yards away.
The house fly’s feet are 10 million times more sensitive to the taste of sugar than is the human tongue.
The house fly has only one pair of membranous wings. The house fly’s uses the other pair of wings, known as "halters," for balance during the flight.
The maximum flying speed of house fly is five miles per hour.
House flies can beat their wings up to 200 times per second.
It is difficult to swat a fly in mid-flight because a fly can detect the slightest changes in air currents. (Fly swatters are designed with holes to minimize the air current.)
A dirty garbage can be the breeding ground for up to 30,000 flies.
More soldiers died during the Spanish-American War from typhoid, a disease spread by flies, than actually died as a result of wounds sustained in battle.