What a very annoying, dirty and disease-spreading creature, and unfortunately for us, a potentially difficult pest to eliminate completely!
Flys can live for 2 to 2½ months and spread more than 100 pathogens. E. coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus and Shigella and others.
These pathogens can cause disease in humans, including cholera, hepatitis, typhoid fever, bacillary dysentery, polio, tuberculosis, ophthalmia and infantile diarrhea.
In researching this article, I read where it has been estimated that for every fly you see, there are 19 others that you don’t. 1 pair of flys can produce 1 million offspring in as little as 6 to 8 weeks!
Each adult female begins laying eggs a few days after hatching
Adult females lay five to six batches of 75 to 100 small, white oval eggs
These eggs hatch in 12 to 24 hours into larvae (maggots)
The larvae then burrow into the food material in which they hatched
The larvae grow and pupate in 4 to 7 days.
The mature larva contracts, its skin forms a case about 1/4 inch long where inside the pupa forms.
The fully formed adult fly breaks open the end of the pupal case and emerges.
Within hours, it is ready to mate to start cycle all over again
Info source: (Do It Yourself Pest Control)
Here Is How A Fly Eats:
When a fly lands on its food, it quickly vomits on it to help aid its digestion. The fly then quickly drinks this solution. During this process is when the potentially millions of microorganism are dropped off.
Also the fly is depositing its excrement at the same time!
How We Contribute To The Problem
Lofts with a buildup of moist bird droppings create ideal conditions for the fly breeding process. If we don’t clean the loft at least once a week, it will be difficult to break the breeding cycle. In order to get flys under control, we need a strategy involving 2 steps will most likely produce the quickest results.
Taking Steps To Get Rid Of Flys
The first step is to remove the biological matter that the adult flys use in which to lay their eggs and do so about every 4 to 7 days. This helps break the egg laying cycle.
This means cleaning the loft, aviary and breeding pens twice weekly and ridding the property of the waste. I am in an area
where I can burn trash. So I burn the debris. If you cannot do this, use plastic trash bags that are thicker ply and tie up very securely. Hose down any scrappers, shovels and outside coverings that will draw back flys back to your area through the odors that may be emitting.
It is also helpful to keep the loft and surrounding area as dry as possible. Wet or dry matter and debris will attract flys and create ideal breeding conditions.
Outside of direct elimination of adults through traps, sprays, swatters, the most efficient way to eliminate or greatly reduce the presence of flys is to remove natural food sources and interrupting their egg laying cycle.
Before we can effectively and knowledgeably rid our premises of the pests, we should understand something about them. Warmer weather and a moist food supply provide ideal conditions in which the fly can propagate very quickly and easily. So both summer and fall season can bring with it, and abundance of them.
The second step of our strategy is to eliminate the adults through traps and poisons. The easiest and least expensive traps are the sticky rolls that are unwound from a little tube and pinned to a crossbeam or area where flys gravitate. Be sure the pigeons cannot get caught up in them. It can make for a sticky mess to clean and possibly hurt the trapped bird!
Another fairly inexpensive tried and true tactic but that utilizes chemicals is to use Permectrin II. Dilute about 2 tablespoons in a liter of pressurized water and spray into swarming flys for a quick kill.
Easy and Quick Homemade Fly & Misquito Trap
Another tip to do is to use this chemical spray around the base of the loft. Here debris from the loft may have built up and attract breeding flys. Clean the area up and spray!
Another tactic you can try is a bucket trap. Get a small bucket or bath pan type container and fill it with water and Permectrin 11. Place it around the loft or areas that flys congregate; the flys will attempt to land on the “white” surface of the water and become trapped. You can catch a lot of flys this way. Move the bucket around as needed.
Words of caution, if you have small children or small pets around, don’t use this type of trap. Drowning or poisoning may result. Be careful when using any type of chemicals or poisons. Read the warning labels.
While you won’t be able to eliminate all the flys that might buzz your loft, you can certainly keep them under control relatively easily and inexpensively with some basic loft maintenance, traps and chemicals.
This article was first published in the Roller Pigeon Digest.
