Drain Fly Control

Drain flies, also known as moth flies, are prevalent in damp places and can infest your residential or commercial building at any time of the year – they do die in the severe winter season but often the cold does not affect them and they continue to live in and infest several buildings throughout the year.

How Do I Identify Drain Flies?

Drain flies are a part of the family of true flies and they have six legs, antennae, and a pair of wings. They also have light gray bodies with wings that are colored in a lighter shade of the same color. And their bodies and wings have long hair on them; these give the flies a fuzzy appearance.

Moreover, they are about 1.5-5 mm long and the larvae are long but the adults are broader. They essentially have an appearance similar to that of a moth.

Why Do I have Drain Flies?

Drain flies are attracted to and live in moist/damp places such as sludge-based places and bathroom sinks, they feed on sewage and organic materials. Other than that, a clogged or slow drain could also be the cause of the issue.

Regular maintenance and cleanliness should be observed in and around your house, especially in those damp areas that can provide them optimal living conditions and a place to feed, grow, and mate. You can see why they’re called drain flies.

They enter through basements, windows, and of course, drains. This is why you should install screens on the windows to prevent flies from entering, and the basement should be properly sealed from any unnecessary entry points too. If they do get into your house, they will most probably be in or around your bathrooms and kitchen.

How to Get Rid of Drain Flies?

The ideal way of doing so is to get rid of the source by searching the areas of excess moisture, both indoors and outdoors so that they can be exterminated. The most effective way to do it is to eliminate the breeding site and remove all organic material in the drain. The place needs to be thoroughly cleaned to ensure that they do not come back.

Once this is done, the flies should go away in about 20 days so they complete their life cycle, but there won’t be a place for them to breed anymore.

Doing this on your own without professional supplies can be very difficult. Locating the breeding site on its own can be difficult at times. It could be in the damaged water lines, near air conditioner condensers, in the bathtub, sink, or shower drains, and a few other places that include infrequently used toilets and toilet tanks.

If you succeed at locating the drain fly source and site, you can try , as a short-term remedy take natural measures to try and remove them. You can pour boiling water down the drain a few times a week or pour a mixture of baking soda, salt, and vinegar down the drain and leave it overnight. Though, these might not be as effective, as a short-term remedy as our chemical treatments to ensure complete removal of the pests.

Therefore, it would be wisest for you to contact Advance Pest Control and have your problem removed through professional solutions brought to you by our trained exterminators!

How to Prevent Drain Flies?

Since drain flies are most attracted to warm and damp places like drains and sewer pipes, the most effective prevention method would be to regularly clean out the drains and pipes in your kitchen, bathroom, and in other relevant places near or in your house/office.

They also like to stay around standing water like that in a puddle or even in a swimming pool. You should also avoid leaving out buckets of water with dirty mops inside. And if there is a drain in your building that is not used regularly, make sure it is closed with a stopper. This prevents the flies from building a home there.

How Dangerous Are Drain Flies?

While they won’t be carrying any harmful diseases, drain flies can still carry loads of bacteria as they live and mate in incredibly nasty locations such as drains and pipes. The most they can do is ruin your mood by being the nuisance they are and contaminate your food with the bacteria they might carry if they land on it.

They reproduce and spread very quickly but they have not shown any evidence of spreading diseases. Drain flies aren’t dangerously harmful to humans.