Flies that live in the ground-Pests

My new abode has flies. Little small flies that burrow in the ground.


When the sun hits that area of the house, these little black flies swarm. There are hundreds of them, they come out of little holes in the ground. I have never seen this before but it is horrible. I bought some Ecologic Insect Killer that is supposed to kill on contact but that is not working. I need something non-toxic to children and pets. There are small children plus two dogs so whatever is used needs to kill these flies but be harmless.

Diatomaceous earth was suggested to kill these flies but since they are in holes would it be beneficial to dig up the area (unhappy landlord) and get it right into the heart of the nest or would a dusting over the area be okay. I know when I was spraying my Flying Insect Killer made with Lemon grass they were coming out in droves trying to avoid the smell, dropping from being stunned but not dying. It is a huge ground infestation.

 

Hmmm... use a Vacuum cleaner with hose along with your lemongrass insecticide and collect them in a bag and dispose of them....

 

Flies... they may be small wasps, I know when we were trying the eco control of flies, i.e. the ones that are attracted by horses, we would buy these wasp larvae (maggots with eggs laid in them), and the wasps that hatched were supposed to attack other larvae, the wasps were about the size of real real small fly.

Anything you spray on them that doesn't kill kids will just drive them somewhere else, and probably piss them off.

Try a spray bottle of cooking oil, water, liquid soap... shaken not stirred, the soap will cut the oil, the oil will block their breathing holes and they will die.

Rancher

 

Those are new to me. I have noted, as well as others, that the flies have been terrible this year.

Let's see...pestilence, war, natural disasters....hmmm, what else are we missing here?

 

Now that is a thought because we have a wasp problem in the back of the house. We have killed three nests and there is another one that I need to get at because there is a split in the deck frame and they have made a nest in there. I wonder if these little flies could be wasps. I will get a picture of them later.

 

Pyrethrum dust. can get it at Home Depot / Lowes. If it has Diatomaceous earth in it as well, even better.

Use it all the time for ground nesting wasps. Douse the entrance, they drag it into the nest .. w/in 48 hrs .. everything inside the nest is dead.

 

Haven't been able to track the species down for you. But there is a vacuum cleaner-like remedy that will wipe them out.

Get an ordinary box-type window fan and cover the input side (back) with mosquito netting.

If the flies are super-tiny get nosseum netting which has a finer mesh. If they are large enough to be trapped by window screen, that will work as well as mosquito netting.

Early in the morning, take the fan out and set it on the ground near the start of the burrows, blowing away from them .

Turn it on and leave it for a while.

The vibration will bring them out of their holes, and then they'll get sucked flat against the window screen.

The windblast will soon dry them into fly jerky. (A perennial favorite, with a little pepper!)

After a little while, ten minutes or so, move the fan a few feet further into their territory.

By the time you sweep the entire area that has ground burrows, there won't be single biting fly left alive.

If necessary, do it every day for a week to wipe out the newly-hatched as the emerge.

At the end of the day, you can use a spray bottle loaded with rubbing alcohol to mist the trapped flies down. Any not already dried to death will die immediately.

Then you can turn off the fan, and scrape the screen clean for the next use.

If you have chickens, they'll go nuts for the dried bugs, If not, just leave them out for the birds to find.

This isn't an original idea. It's been used on mosquitoes many times in many places. I think it will solve the fly problem very quickly.

 

A spray bottle of dish soap and water should do the deed on these bugs! I would start with that and Chase with ether the lemon grass spray or cedar oil spray around the nest areas! So this for several days until gone!

 

It look like this

 

They look like this:

 

Termite?

 

Mix Dawn in a 5 gallon bucket and pour the soupy solution on the holes.
Use 4/5 ounces in the water.

 

Sevin dust or baby powder. Not sure if it will work or not. I had a small infestation of little piss ants. I heard that baby powder had the same effect as Diatamatchous earth , and corn starch. These powders are supposed to get into the joints of the exoskeleton of these insects and will kill them. Well , I tried the baby powder on my carpet in the house , and it worked, no more piss ants, and the house smelled baby fresh. Lol.

 

I applied Diatomaceous earth last night and they do not seem to be affected by it. I have now resorted to chemicals and blasted them with wasp killed an hours ago. I have given up being Eco-friendly. Though I may sprinkle corn starch over the area tonight.

 

denatured alcohol and a road flare should resolve the issue.

 

You sound like my teenage son. He had the propane torch and a plan until I veto'ed him.

 

Yep, that's a Mom, always taking the fun out of things with the logical thinking.

 

Yep. Men never grow up. We only grow older.

 

Yep, boys will be boys. Just don't be too surprised, or hard on him, when he decides to give it a go when you're not lookin. Sometimes....you just gotta watch 'em burn!

 

Well I threatened to take the propane burner away from him because I found it in my kitchen. After questioning, I found out that he had been using it to melt cheese. That has to be another guy thing.