We have several pest flies that get into our Mooresville homes. Each has its own food and habitat preferences. This can make it difficult to find the right pest control solution. What works for houseflies is not likely to work for cluster flies. What works for fruit flies will fall short of working for fungus gnats. Keep this in mind as you check out the following six, easy and effective fly control tips. Some will work for all flies. Some will only work for a specific type of fly.
1. Prevent Direct Entry
All flies can get into your home by just flying in. These tips are to help you keep flies from gaining direct entry:
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Keep doors open only long enough to go in and out.
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Reduce light around doors at night, or replace exterior white lighting with yellow lighting.
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Seal gaps, cracks, and holes around doors and windows.
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Repair damaged screens on windows and doors and apply screens to vent or exhaust openings.
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Seal cracks in your foundation.
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Fill in gaps around pipes.
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Replace weatherstripping or door sweeps that aren't getting the job done.
2. Prevent Hitchhikers
Some flies can fly into your home or hitch a ride. The two most common flies that hitchhike into homes are fruit flies and fungus gnats. These two tips can help you prevent an infestation.
Inspect potted plants before bringing them inside. If you see tiny black flies that look like they'd rather run from you than fly away, those are fungus gnats. You should not bring plants inside that have been exposed to these flies. There could be eggs in the soil.
When you bring fruit or vegetables home from the market, store them in the refrigerator. This is how fruit flies commonly get into homes. They lay their tiny eggs on produce. When they enter the temperature-controlled environment of your home, they can start to hatch and plague you.
3. Resist Dirty Flies
The worst flies that get in are houseflies and bottle flies because they are implicated in the spread of more than 65 diseases. The reason they're so good at making us sick is that they're attracted to decaying organic matter. You can use this knowledge to prevent an infestation.
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Manage exterior trash by keeping bagged trash in a sealed container and removing it from your property weekly. If trash sits for more than a week, clean your receptacles to remove the odor. This dirty odor can attract these dirty flies.
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Move trash bins away from entry ways to make it less likely that you let a fly in when you go to put the trash out.
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Stay on top of picking up dog waste from your yard if you have a dog.
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If you have a compost, make sure it is properly mixed. Stinky compost will attract flies.
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If you feed pets or livestock outside, this can attract flies. Try to keep things as clean as possible and put food down only during mealtimes.
4. Resist Clean Flies
Cluster flies are flies that come into homes in large numbers when temperatures outside drop. These flies don't feed on garbage. This makes them mostly harmless when they get into Mooresville homes. The attractants that lure these flies to your yard are difficult to manage because cluster flies are attracted to a healthy lawn and healthy soil. Healthy soil is filled with earthworms, and cluster flies lay their eggs in earthworms. Since you want a healthy lawn, your best bet for keeping cluster flies out is to apply the mechanical exclusions listed above.
5. Direct Control
If flies manage to get into your Mooresville home, one of the most effective tools for getting rid of them is your vacuum cleaner. All you have to do is just suck those flies up. After you do this, be sure to remove the bag outside so that no flies are released back into your home.
6. Professional Control
The best way to prevent fly infestations (and a long list of other household pests problems) is to invest in residential pest control for your Mooresville home. We can help you with this. Ask us about The Basic, My Elite and My Elite Plus pest control plans. These plans are designed to target the pests that you're concerned about. Get your protection in place today.
