Pest of the month - house flies

About the pest

What do they look like?
- House flies are 6-7 mm long and females are usually larger than the male.
- The eyes are reddish and mouth parts are sponge-like.
- The thorax has four narrow black stripes and there is a sharp upward bend in the fourth longitudinal wing.
- The abdomen is grey or yellowish with a dark midline and irregular dark markings on the sides.

What are their habits?
- House flies are closely associated with human activity.
- Adults are indiscriminate feeders and their mouth parts allow them to ingest only liquid materials from sweet or decaying substances. Adults feed on solid materials by vomiting onto foodstuffs to liquefy them by means of regurgitated saliva.
- Flies are inactive at night.

How do they breed?
- Adults can mate after 10-14 days and eggs are laid four days after.
- Their white eggs are 1.2mm in length and are laid singly, but often massed together.
- Each female can lay up to 500 eggs in several batches in manure heaps, excrement or exposed food materials. Eggs can hatch within 8 hours after being laid.
- Larvae are creamy-white in colour, cylindrical in shape and can grow to 10-12mm in length.
- Larvae feed on moist organic matter, including dung, carrion, domestic waste and sewage, and survive the winter under piles or manure or in other protected locations.
- In warm, favourable conditions, their life-cycle can be completed in 7-10 days.
- As many as 10-12 generations may occur in one summer.

How do they spread?
- House flies can travel several miles from their breeding site.
- Their mature larvae can crawl up to 50ft away from their breeding site in search of a dry area in which to pupate.

Danger signs

- The presence of house flies in areas where food is sold or prepared is very undesirable and in commercial and public areas they are associated with bad hygiene and lack of control.
- They can be a problem in areas near to waste sites or waste storage areas and where livestock or poultry are housed.

The problems and business consequences

- House flies can cause distress where they occur in large numbers and settle on people and food.
- Over 100 types of pathogens are associated with the house fly. Flies carry a number of detrimental diseases and can contaminate foodstuffs.
- Bad publicity leading to loss of reputation and customer confidence.
- Negative impact on business profitability as a result of fines for non-compliance with legislation and fewer customers.

Steps to take yourself

- Maintain good hygiene, housekeeping and sanitation
- Ensure all foodstuffs are covered and food surfaces clean. Where flies have come into contact with food, this should be removed and destroyed.
- Clean waste skips and bins regularly and ensure these have tight-fitting lids. All rubbish should be in plastic bags and carefully sealed.
- Keep waste receptacles, storage areas or compose heaps as far from building entrances as possible and keep bins clean by washing with strong disinfectant.
- Drains and gullies should be cleaned regularly.
- Keep doors and windows closed where possible.
- For low level fly activity commercial aerosol sprays are available. However, elimination of breeding areas is needed for effective management and if flies are found in large numbers or if there is a recurring problem professional advice should be sought.

How Cannon can help

Fly control is an important aspect of everyday life for all of us, never more so for many commercial and industrial businesses. Cannon Pest Control has a team of British Pest Control Association qualified professionals to identify infestations and the likely source and can recommend integrated control measures to resolve the problem. Cannon Pest Control’s team of experts can:

- Give best advice to businesses on waste management and storage and fly related problems.
- Give strategic advice on the optimal use of and provide fly control units.
- Advise on the use of and provide fly screens and fly curtains to reduce the risk of flies entering the building.
- Cannon Pest Control’s British Pest Control Association qualified staff can provide a fast response and recommend the optimum solution.

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