Eradicating house flies

The house fly is an unpleasant insect for humans. Also known as drosophila or “brown mouk” in northern France, it is the most common species of flies. It is “domestic” in the sense that it willingly enters our homes, where it reproduces massively. Each female lays up to 1000 eggs during her lifetime.

So how to get rid of house flies.

How do we recognize them? What is their life cycle? Why are they harmful? These are all questions to which here are answers from a professional exterminator in Montreal, Que.

The house fly: what physical appearance?

The housefly is an insect with an adult measuring 4 to 7.5 mm and the maggot (larva) measuring 7 to 10 mm.

Its head has reddish eyes and spongy mouth parts. Its grey chest has four dark, longitudinal stripes. It is to this thorax that two large oval wings are connected, crossed on the abdomen at rest.

The abdomen, on the other hand, is short and striped with dark stripes. In males, the end is dark and rounded. In the female, it is sharper and clearer.

The female fly is usually larger than the male. During its flight, the fly buzzes.

Learn more about fly species by visiting Health Canada.

Know the life cycle of house flies

The Drosophile fly enjoys a complete metamorphosis. Its female lays hundreds of elongated, whitish eggs, too small to be easily noticed with the naked eye. It deposits them on fruit or moist materials in full fermentation.

Each egg carries two breathing tubes that emerge from the liquid where it was laid. The female of the house fly lays 25 to 35 eggs per day, nearly 1000 eggs during her lifetime; and the outbreak takes place one or two days later.

The larva is whitish and has no legs. It actively moves on wet surfaces to feed. The house fly lives in its larval form for five or six days. And it moults twice during this period.

In the 3rd larval stage, she finds a dry environment to undergo a nymph transformation inside her last larval skin. Its cuticle hardens, becomes darker and turns brownish or orange. The nymph carries a pair of filaments at the anterior part of the body.

About five days later, the adult fly emerges from the nymphal envelope. She can live for several weeks.

Flies, shortly after their appearance, are ready to mate more than once. During his court, the male makes a sound by vibrating his wings. If the female is receptive, she responds to this love song. It is able to store sperm from an insemination and use it to lay eggs for several days.

Breeding of this species occurs throughout the year and in heated dwellings. Its life cycle varies according to temperature. It is 50 days at 12 degrees Celsius and only eight days at 30 degrees Celsius.

What a nuisance!

While feeding, she often regurgitates part of her previous meal; this is how it transmits pathogenic microbes to food.

It spreads in some countries countless diseases its body teeming with millions of bacteria such as:

• dysentery,
• tuberculosis,
• polio.

Feces, droppings and carrion are his favourite places for breeding.

The fly has a highly developed sense of smell with which it can detect a strong smell for miles. From April to mid-November, it is present in the houses. Its presence indoors during the winter indicates that there is moist organic or animal matter decomposing.

These flies break into homes by:

• The windows,
• Open doors,
• damaged mosquito nets,
• the attics,
• Cracks.

15 exterminator tips to avoid “attack” of drosophila

• Destroy their food sources and breeding sites. Remember that they need decaying materials and moisture to grow,
• Install mosquito nets in doors and windows or replace those in them with thinner ones,
• Avoid keeping the doors open,
• Brush or vacuum regularly on floors and carpets,
• Rinse the cans before throwing them in the trash,
• Carefully clean any spilled liquid on the floor in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, refrigerator or stove,
• Don’t leave any leftover food lying around after meal preparation,
• Dry the sinks or soil after washing,
• Dry the clothes, if possible outside, after rinsing them well,
• Always cover foods, even if they are in a locked cupboard,
• Clean sinks and drains regularly. Use a rigid brush or sterilize them with boiling water,
• Wash the walls of all the places where food depots can be housed, such as in the kitchen,
• Discard food waste from closed containers,
• For beer or wine manufacturers, be sure to clean your equipment properly after use.
• If you sell food, check your utensils, industrial dishwashers and even garbage cans regularly. Flies have the unfortunate habit of breeding in outdoor waste containers and then entering our homes through doors and windows.

But if you’re already beset by these detestable insects, you can set them a trap:

• Take a glass or clear plastic jar of about a litre,
• Place a ripe, skinless mango in it. Sprinkle with yeast.
• Attach a paper or plastic funnel to the opening of the jar. Direct the smallest end to the bottom.
• Playing with a flycatcher: here, we crush the flies. This method is not too advisable: the crushed fly emits an unpleasant smell, leaves tasks and attracts other insects.

Attracted by the mango sprinkled with yeast, the flies will descend into the funnel. They will then be imprisoned.

Exterminate your prisoners by placing the closed pot in a freezer or in the sun. Or make it simpler by pouring soapy water into the funnel.

However, if the infestation is severe, you will need the help of a professional exterminator.

Professional exterminator solutions

To get rid of house flies, exterminators have different ways:

• Spray removal of biological insecticides: it involves completely eliminating an escape of house flies, and limiting their access to the home
• Cleaning the whole house.

Warning: choose your professional exterminator with your care. Many are simple amateurs who will use insecticides that are dangerous to your health or that of your pets. It is enough that they make a mistake in the process of extermination for the flies to return to you.

Before choosing a professional exterminator, check:

• If he has a permit from the Quebec Ministry of Sustainable Development with C5: Extermination,
• If he is trying to measure the degree of infestation and find the source of the infestation before talking about elimination,
• If it offers appropriate treatment to the intensity of aggression,
• If it offers you a guarantee of written satisfaction.

In addition, a professional exterminator will be able to remain discreet in his interventions. Colonization of your home by flies is often synonymous with dirt in the eyes of those around you.

And you, have you ever experienced an epidemic of these disease-carrying insects? Did you manage to get rid of it? talk to us in