Flies are typically separated into 2 major groups, the large flies and the small flies. The larger or filth flies (those we’ll cover in the blog) are typically about 1/8-3/8″ long, breed outdoors, and come from the outside (e.g., house and blow/bottle), while small flies (covered in the April blog) are typically about 1/16-3/16″ long, breed indoors, and are found indoors (e.g., small fruit, drain, humpbacked/phorid flies, and fungus gnats).

WHY THEY ARE OF CONCERN. Yes, their presence is a nuisance, but there are more important reasons why you don’t want them inside. Consider that they carry and transmit disease-causing pathogens/organisms. They are pests because they affect human health and food safety. For example, consider the following:

1. Houseflies have been shown to harbor over 100 different kinds of disease-causing pathogens, many of which are associated with filth. Such pathogens include those causing typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, tuberculosis, anthrax, opthalmia (affects eyes), polio, and salmonellosis (food poisoning), as well as parasitic worms, including tapeworms and pinworms.
2. They transmit pathogens via their vomit, feces, and contaminated external body parts. For instance, since adult house, blow, and bottle flies have sponging mouthparts and therefore cannot eat solid foods, they must first regurgitate a digestive liquid onto any solid food material to liquefy it before they can slurp it up.
3. Many have a relatively short development time (egg to adult) and can therefore build into large numbers within a short time. For example, house fly developmental time can be as short as 8 days.

Flies are typically separated into 2 major groups, the large flies and the smaller flies. The larger or filth flies (those we’ll cover in the May 2013 blog) are typically about 1/8-3/8″ long, breed outdoors, and come from the outside (e.g., house fly). Then there is a whole group of tiny flies that most people call "gnats.” Although they can commonly be problems in homes, more often they are problems in commercial accounts, especially offices, food handling establishments, food processing plants, and grocery stores.

Why they are of concern. Yes, their presence is a nuisance, but more importantly consider that they all breed in some kind of decaying organic "goo.” Hence, they can carry disease-causing pathogens and can affect human health and food safety. For example, consider the following:

• Many of these flies breed in very unsanitary conditions and may mechanically act as disease vectors.
• Some, once dead, because of their delicate bodies can cause bronchial asthma via inhalation of their body parts.
• Many have a short development time (egg to adult) and can build into large numbers within a short time; e.g., the small fruit fly’s developmental time can be 8 days.

Not only are these “gnats” typically found indoors causing problems, but they also typically breed indoors. Hence, the source of these flies will almost always be indoors. Finding and eliminating the source is the key to solving the fly problem.

You say, why bother checking out your outside lights?  Simply put, by reducing the amount and/or changing the color of outside light, you can drastically reduce the attraction of night-flying insects to your home.  The second and third aspects of this insect reduction strategy, which become important closer to your home, are employing good exclusion methods, which is the topic for another blog.

The three most common long-distance attractants to insects are odor (cooking odors, sanitation odors), exterior lights, and the structure’s physical properties (size, shape, color).  Once insects get closer to the house, the availability of moisture, food, and harborage become important.

As the warmer weather of spring arrives, it also brings with it night-flying insects that are attracted by a home’s lights. So after sunset, go outside and slowly walk around your house looking for where lights are positioned, the color of light they produce, and for any light escaping from inside your house to the outside. 

No doubt, you have had some flea problems during this winter season because of your pet’s exposure by visiting places where flea-infested pets exist or they have come to visit you. Now, in a month or so, temperatures should be warm enough for your pets to spend time outside. This means that they will be exposed to fleas left behind by other pets, wild/feral dogs and cats, and wildlife such as raccoons, possums, etc. So, let’s get ready.

Oh what a topic. So, why would I ever want to bring it up for discussion? If you go to the internet, there is so much misinformation on this subject that it’s scary and possibly dangerous to one’s health. To most people, boric acid is considered to be non-toxic but will kill insects, or it has very low toxicity to humans. It is used primarily for the control of cockroaches, but more and more people are using it to control bed bugs because it is inexpensive. In most cases it is being grossly over applied and misapplied.