Flies in My Basement

I had a similar thing happen to me in the kitchen. I kept finding flies even though the windows were all screened. They were on the smaller side. I finally found that they had all hatched out of a dish that was high up on a decorative shelf. Once I cleaned out that the problem was gone. In my mothers house flies were coming down the chimney until she got it screened off properly. I hope that helps.

Hopefully, the workers finishing your basement didn't leave yesterday's lunch somewhere inside the walls -but seriously, though, could there be food anywhere? Also, clean any nearby drains with some vinegar and baking soda. Check your sump pump, too.

We just recently had this problem, and luckily we have Orkin service already in place. Our guy came out right after we killed about 50 in our living room and kitchen. We used flying insect spray and the flyswatter technique. Then when Orkin sprayed, it killed the remaunder of them. This is what I was told right from the expert. Unless they are the huge "horse" flys, they don't lay eggs in garbage, or in dead animals(I was worried that my cats got a mouse that I didn't know about). They will however, find a crack or crevice away from people(usually in the basement), and lay the eggs there, and then the new flys infest your house. There isn't a whole lot you can do, except make sure that you catch whatever fly may have come in before it lays the eggs. That is the advice I got, and we haven't had a problem since. Good luck!

Hi, we've got this same problem and had an exterminator come to give us an estimate for extermination and try to identify the source. He seems to think that something died in the basement and the flies are hatching from the carcass. However, we smelled nothing unpleasant and we are in the basement almost every day. Another exterminator told me that flies can make nests in walls and stuff. Try fumigating w/ an over the counter bug spray following the directions closely. If that doesn't work, try looking in Pest control in the yellow pages (I thought it would be under E for exterminator, nope. Then I thought to look under B for bug, nope. Then I for insect, nope. The listings are under P for pest) Hope that helps!

T.

We had small, black, heart-shaped flies in our basement, about 1/2 the size of house flies. The pest-control person said they were drain flies coming from our sump pump/stand pipe combo for water control. Some boiling hot water and dish soap in the sump pump and in the stand pipe cured them.

Oh my..Yes i know all too well. Killed about 40 on my family room window, then discovered they were coming thru a hole, patched the hole, then had a ton in the kitchen.Got rid of all them, then went in the basement and discovered the window was literally covered..I sprayed flying insect stuff on them, and then discovered the basement window wasnt latched, did that, and that cured the problem..Also had a problem in the garage when I forgot about a bag of garbage and ended up with maggots(which then turned to flies)...My advice is go thru your house with a fine tooth comb literally, checking all window seals, check under beds for any food(my daughter is notorious for getting food in the weirdest places) and just be vigilant with spraying and killing..My husband also thought that maybe the heat wave we had, had them scrounging for "cool" places to go..Sorry cant help much, but know that your not alone..K.

if you keep your garbage down there (like diapers in diaper pail), it is likely they are coming from there. We had that problem once last summer, was amityville here! No more garbage in basement...we have to keep it outdoors now w/ the racoons instead :)

I'm so sorry! This happened to me once. Ours were a little smaller than regular flies and were also in our basement. I had the pest guy out. He identified them but said there was nothing he could do. He said they were sewer flies and suggested that we clean out the drain in the floor of our basement with bleach and plug it. This worked perfectly, and I haven't seen one since. If you decide to call a pest guy, I highly recommend Anderson Pest Control. Good luck to you. I remember how awful it was when this happened to us!