House Flies! (yuk…)

House flies are the most common breed of flies found in a household. House flies can be an annoyance and a health hazard. We all enjoy when spring/summer time rolls around again. When you sit down to enjoy that summer picnic but you see the flies beat you to it. House flies are generally gray in color with four black stripes on the thorax. Four to eight inches in length. Their entire body is covered with tiny hairs. Flies have complex eyes, which give them the ability to detect movements and light patterns.

House flies do not have teeth but a tongue shaped like a straw. They suck up their food. They can turn solid foods into a liquid by vomiting on it. House Flies enjoy a wide variety of food, garbage, human foods, dead animals, excrement, and animal food. House flies taste with their feet, which are ten million times more sensitive to sugar than the human tongue.

Each adult female fly will lay several batches of 75 to 200 eggs. The eggs remind me of grains of rice. Female house flies favor damp areas such as composting or pet waste. Anything that is suitable food for their larvae. The eggs usually hatch within a day and grow quicker in hot moist environments. Larvae is also called maggots. The larvae is pale in color and will feed on the food for the next several days. Maggots begin to pupae, which takes 3 to 4 weeks to complete. After emerging, now adult flies, will live up to about one month. If you are seeing an infestation you need to do a few things to rid yourself of these pests. First step is to see where the flies are and laying their eggs. Rid yourself of any pet wastes immediately. Keep trash cans covered tightly and take out your trash regularly, along with cleaning the can. Baby diapers are a culprit around here! Keep pet food covered when not in use and look for any dead animals. Composting heaps can be another place flies love to breed. Repair any screen or mesh on doors and windows to keep the flies out. The breeding area must be cleaned up and removed. House flies are the carriers of many diseases. They are known to carry some serious diseases like typhoid, tuberculosis, cholera and dysentery.

Remember: House flies are a sanitation issue! Clean, discard, wash. Did I mention clean? ?

Safe Earth Pest Control (www.safeearthpestcontrol.com) is a local Rockwall TX company and we can help with your insect issues! Give us a call at 214-321-2847 if you’re local, or visit our local residential pest control page: https://safeearthpestcontrol.com/pestcontrol/residential-pest-control/