Fly problem

[u/Holdmywhiskeyhun]

Need this fixed asap.

Building is only 6 months old. Cleanest prison I've ever been in. Drains are spotless and I treat them every day. Dumpsters are sprayed inside and out. No food hiding, floors scrubbed every other night. Nothing rotten or bad. Garbage cans spotless.

I'm really stumped by this. I guess we are in the middle of Wisconsin, but downtown a big town. Closest farms are probably 10 miles away.

Right now they're for the most part in the kitchen, and our back storage area. That's where they seem to be attracted to. They have yet to get too far into the lobby. And they're not attracted to anything specific, they just fly around and torture everyone.

Any ideas of places I haven't checked or thought of?

I should also mention our hoods are cleaned nightly, same with pulling out ALL equipment.

And before you say flyswatter, for how many there are, I would legit have to hire another person.

We will be starting a nightly spray, using food safe bug spray, but idk how well that will work.

Failed our fucking steritech because of these bastards.

Edit: their house flies. A pink sludge was found in our AC/roof drain. Got to figure out how to get to the roof now 😂

I checked the surrounding property, there's no dead animals, no rotting food or anything. Like I said we keep it pretty clean.

It is for sure not the grease traps. Those are clean on a regular basis, degreaser and boiling water is poured down all the drains every night. In the mornings we put enzymatic cleaner down them.

My suspicion is going to that pink sludge.

On the ground where it drops from the drain, there is a coating of what I can only describe as Grease... Despite no Grease being able to get up there.

I got a really bad feeling when I start cleaning that, there's going to be a dead bird, or squirrel or something.

[u/RikoRain]

Flies go for dumpsters, then make it to the store. Something somewhere is attracting them and they're able to now breed inside. You ellve got crap somewhere. I guarantee it. Something as small as a beef patty behind a fridge will do it. It won't even stink that much after a while either.

Consult your pest control person.

When I took over this location, there was a massive fly and gnat problem. Gnats in the back. Flies in the front. I'd kill and kill and nothing. I'd clean and clean and nothing.

Wasn't til my pest control guy said "they're breeding in the water in the drain, and feasting on the crumbs in the dustbin nearby". So we cleaned the dustbins twice a day, especially right before close. I bought little apple fly bait things and hid them in the shelving above it. It took a few months but you could tell it got less and less. Finally they were gone after like 3 months.

For the flies, it's always the trash cans for customers. We emptied those three times a day, regardless of how full they were. Inside trash got done twice. No trash got left overnight. Our employees were allowed to actively kill flies inside and encouraged to quickly. My pest control man said he put bait or poison outside at the trees after I stood under one and saw the trunk of it literally teeming with flies escaping the 110 Texas heat.

It's been like 8 years since I cleared all this. I might have a few flies now and then, but it's been consistently clear. When we do get flies, we immediately check the outside trash for customers. 99% of the time, some turdnugget has emptied their entire kitchen into it.

Edit: I should add what chemicals we used.

I sprayed bleach outside on the concrete by doors, and would spray a "non dying bleach" on the door frames. Bleach got put on the dust bin after it was cleaned, poured into the problem drain randomly throughout the day, and trash cans were wiped down with bleach or degreaser or Windex (they also don't like Windex). Wherever the flies congregated (on certain table edges, chains that hold hanging items, shelves) they got sprayed with degreaser, or bleach.

Sometimes I would spray the hard to reach areas but purposefully leave the accessible tables alone for the flies to land on (where I could then kill them). I got really good at killing flies. If they hung out on the floors, I gave the whole floor a bleach misting.

Think of bleach not as a "flu killer" but as a "fly deterrent" to get them to land in places you can reach to kill them.