What To Do About Moth Flies Inside Your Louisville Home

Five Ways To Get Rid Of Moth Flies

Moth flies often become a problem when Louisville residents go away on vacation and leave their homes unoccupied. If you have a small infestation due to leaving your home unoccupied, you should be able to deal with it on your own.

1. Use a fly swatter to swat the adult flies.

The most obvious solution for flies is to swat them. While this only addresses the symptom, not the source, it is an essential step. For a small infestation, a fly swatter is all you need. When you're done swatting the flies, wash the dust with a disinfectant to prevent bacterial illness.

2. Use a vacuum to suck up the adult flies.

If you have a lot of flies, it may be necessary to bring in the heavy artillery. A vacuum can get this frustrating job done. After sucking the flies up, dispose of the vacuum bag outside your home. Clean the areas where the flies were crawling around to address contamination.

3. Locate breeding sites in your home.

After eliminating the adult flies, search for breeding locations in your home. Coat clear plastic cups with vegetable oil or petroleum jelly and place them over the drains in your home. You may also use clear plastic bags. If you have infested drains, you'll capture the adult flies. The flies fly up into the cups or bags and get stuck.

It takes about 10 to 15 days for a moth fly to complete its lifecycle at 70° F. So, be patient. You may have to wait a few days before you find flies in your traps. Put the cups or bags over your drains at night and remove them during the day when you need to use your drains.

Inspect mop buckets, the floor underneath your refrigerator, and other moist and potentially unsanitary locations. These are where you'll find moth flies breeding.

4. Address breeding sites.

Moth flies spend most of their lives in the larvae stage. The larva of a moth fly is a wiggly worm. You need to destroy these wiggly worms if you hope to stop moth flies from emerging from drains and other breeding sites you've uncovered within your home.

• Pour boiling water down the drains to wash down any gelatinous organic material in your drains.
• Keep running water down your drain to flush stagnant water and materials down the drain.
• Clean unsanitary locations and reduce moisture to make them unusable as breeding areas.
• Use a stiff brush to clean out the scum in pipes and the sediment inside your drain traps.
• Check to make sure your drain traps are holding water. Repair them if they are not.
• If needed, you can use a biological cleaner to clean your drains. Follow all manufacturer's guidelines or have a licensed pest professional handle drain cleaning for you. When you hire a professional, your professional will do a lot more than clean your drains. It is well worth the money to get this tough job done right.

There are a surprising number of places moth flies can breed. In all cases, moisture and bacteria are present. We don't know what potential breeding sites may be found in or around your home. Use this information to make this assessment yourself.

5. Prevent new flies from getting in.

The last thing you want is for new flies to get in and replace flies you've removed or destroyed. Once you've successfully dealt with the flies in your home, set your focus on keeping flies out. Moth flies can find breeding sites outdoors during the summer months.

• Inspect your exterior and look for stagnant water resources. Address conditions that create stagnant water by performing tasks such as cleaning out clogs in your gutter system.
• Pour out containers that capture rainwater. Any drain flies in these containers will dry up on the ground in the hot sun.
• Remove leaf litter, grass clipping, plant clippings, and similar organic debris.
• Clean out garbage receptacles and address any gelatinous organic matter. Doing so will remove breeding sites.
• Move trash receptacles away from exterior doors. When moth flies investigate your trash receptacles, they won't be near exterior doors.
• Only keep exterior doors open as long as needed. Moth flies can fly right into your home through an open door.
• Inspect your window and door screens. Repair any rips or holes and make sure there are no gaps around the frames.
• Inspect exterior doors and seal gaps. Replace weatherstripping and door sweeps and align double doors.
• In locations where rotting organic matter has sat on the ground and soaked into the soil, remove soil. Moth flies can use contaminated soil for months or years.

These five steps may address your moth fly problem if it is small and isolated to areas you commonly use. Continued trouble with moth flies is evidence of a chronic problem. Contact a licensed pest management professional if your moth fly infestation is chronic.