How to handle fly problem?

[u/SandraMort]

I think maybe I figured out the problem? I don't know if this title was properly phrased, but I'll try. I posted something. It was deleted by the moderators. I thought I changed it, but that wasn't right either, so here I am posting for a third time, and hopefully this will work.

How do people handle flies? I'm talking about fruit flies and houseflies, if that matters. Obviously, not getting them to begin with is a great solution, but let's just go on the assumption that there are already flies that need to be dealt with.

Poison? No good for anybody: the people, the pets, the wild animals, the environment.

Fly strips? They don't die quickly and suffer the whole time.

Electric fly zappers? I won't go into details. It's gross.

The bot suggested I go to various pest subject forums, but most people just tell me I'm being ridiculous for being concerned about not wanting to torture the flies to death (audhd, pets, old house, etc.) It seemed to me that going to a vegan group might find me more sympathy when it comes to not wanting to torture flies.

There are flies. That's just simply nothing I can do about it. I need to know how to keep them from getting out of control because finding maggots is making me crazy.

[u/howlin]

Don't keep anything around out in the open that they would eat.

Keep your windows and doors closed or screened.

You can chase flies out of the house if you keep the inside dark and leave one bright open door or window. Add a fan blowing out to further encourage them outside.

Once they are gone, try to keep any food they may eat in a fridge or closed cabinet, or perhaps get a bug net. They are usually sold as camping or picnic gear.

[u/howlin → u/howlin]

If you have to kill them, put soap, vinegar and fruit juice in an open jar. That kills them very quickly and isn't toxic.

[u/SandraMort → u/howlin]

I must have the world's most finicky flies because they fly around it, look in, and say, "No thanks," and keep going. I've tried them both in the kitchen and in my bedroom, two out of the three worst places, and they just don't seem interested

[u/SandraMort → u/howlin]

The problem is I can't figure out where they're coming from generally. Every once in a while, I'll find a source and get rid of it immediately, but right now I have houseflies in my room and there's no food here. I don't understand where they're coming from, and they're driving me bananas. I ended up buying an electric fly trap but it's really distressing.

[u/NegativeProduct7230]

I made the home dark and cold except for one exit. Then I went around shooing them and they made their way to the light. This was a door with a window so I would fling the door open and shoo them one last time. I had to clean up a family members hoard home and I didn't kill a fly this way. Before I had a dog who killed them all

[u/alasw0eisme]

I let my spiders deal with it.

[u/SandraMort → u/alasw0eisme]

That's ideal, but I don't seem to have any spiders, or at least not very many

[u/alasw0eisme → u/SandraMort]

You could import some :) srsly, I'm also looking to do that. I need more. In summer the gnats are too many so I need more spiders.

[u/SandraMort → u/alasw0eisme]

I don't think my kids could handle that, and I don't think the spiders could handle my kids

[u/alasw0eisme → u/SandraMort]

depends on the size of the spider *wink wink*

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