House Of Horror

[SweetKingfisher1]

I would be interested to hear if others have been through what I have this week .

Arrived home from work on Monday, with dear Ian at work. Some how durning the day our home had been taken over by Cluster Flies .

I turned the lights on and all I could see were large flies flying around me and the house. I had never heard of Cluster Flies, but how daughter had and she told me to look read up about them. 

Well Monday night I had killed a good 30 flies, then Tuesday night I killed around 16 flies. Wednesday night I killed around another 5-6 flies, but to night so far none.

How they got in the house, no idea, but it does say they can get in the smallish hole. They can appear in the Spring, but it is mainly the Autumn time they arrive in the house.

I hope we never have them again.

Regards

Marina  

[vanessan]

Sounds horrific, hope you have got rid of them all at last. I’ve never heard of them before and reading about them I hope never to experience them. Funny how these things happen when men are at work and not there to help isn’t it!! 

[Siddy]

53 minutes ago, SweetKingfisher1 said:

They can appear in the Spring, but it is mainly the Autumn time

Them times ring true what's happen to us at work, We had to close a whole floor of a building which is a fair length in spring, I had to release 14 smoke canisters above the ceilings one weekend then they did the same the following weekend.

I was on that site again yesterday and they've got them again so there smoking the ceiling voids again.

[Polly]

Yuk! That took me back to childhood! My dad was a keen angler, (obsessive in fact) so there was a running contest between mum and dad about where it was ok to store equipment and especially bait in our small home.

Mum's red line was NO maggots in the cellar, so when dad upset a pint of the little horrors into the coal heap down there, he decided not to mention it. Eventually they hatched, and we began noticing first a few and then a good few coming up into the house.  Dad then had to confess and in the cellar we discovered the walls covered with  hundreds of them, that was a nightmare too! 

[grendel]

at one old house we lived in, we used to get the invasion of the winged ants one day a year in the bathroom, they emerged from the bathroom and all the outside drains around the property and took flight, just one day a year - after the first occurrence when we admittedly panicked a bit, we got used to it and just left the bathroom door closed and the windows open (it was a ground floor bathroom)

[Guest]

We have them hibernating around the velux window in the loft. If you open the window In fly hundreds of the buggers, unfortunately for them I'm stood waiting with the Hoover pipe 

[Bound2Please]

12 minutes ago, Polly said:

Eventually they hatched, and we began noticing first a few and then a good few coming up into the house.  Dad then had to confess and in the cellar we discovered the walls covered with  hundreds of them

In about 1988/9 in our tackle shop we took delivery of 80 gallons of maggots on June 14th ready for the 16th. We shut up shop at about 10pm having cleaned about 50 gallons ready for the next day 15th. We came into the shop the first thing we noticed was no lights on, still didn't think nothing of it, I reset the trip. The wench made a cuppa, we drunk up I went downstairs, then it hit me the wooden floor was multi coloured. When the electric tripped of course the cold room went down, I had always thought the rubber seal on the door was good, maybe for keeping heat out and cold in, but not maggots when they start sweating and going walk outs. T cut a long story short, we only had mixed maggots that opening weekend, we had lost about 15 - 20 gallons.

About a week later on opening I thought it looked dark in the shop, it was black with blue bottles, as I opened the door, they swarmed out well a good few thousand did. We killed loads with spray, walking on them it was crunch crunch. This went on for a good few weeks.

Charlie

[Chelsea14Ian]

Not guilty to  maggots,I don' fish only cook them.Dont know where that came from.At present I am working evens.Have seen a few,but Marina has had to put up with the most which is not nice for her.I did not notice any last night or this morning. Fingers cross they won't come back.

Ian 

[Wildfuzz]

I got me one of these, brilliant best investment living "in the country" I ever made, makes me jump when one of the flying beasties meets their demise though.

A bit like Taser for insects!!!!!!!

[L8DAVE]

1 hour ago, Wildfuzz said:

I got me one of these, brilliant best investment living "in the country" I ever made, makes me jump when one of the flying beasties meets their demise though.

A bit like Taser for insects!!!!!!!

Could do with one of these for " My-Newt " ...... Our moorings are close to Cantley sugar factory and we get inundated with wasps and hornets 

[SteveO]

We had a similar "House of Horror" incident a couple of years ago.

The first thing we noticed was a very bad smell near the kitchen sink. I poured some drain cleaner down the plughole and bleached all the work surfaces but the smell persisted. Then focus moved to the drains, so Mrs O got onto Southern Water and gave them hell. They came out and inspected everything, but the smell lingered on.  Then a couple of days later, I was making a cup of tea when I noticed a maggot on the kitchen work surface. This was duly removed and the work surface cleaned and bleached.   Then I noticed another maggot, followed by another one.  It dawned on me that the maggot must have come from somewhere and, since maggots can't fly, my investigations moved to the cupboard above said worktop.  I got out the stepladder and climbed up to look on top of the cupboard and, sure enough, there was a  trap, which contained a mouse, bloated in death, with maggots pouring out of it, making a bee-line for a gap between the cupboard and the wall. From there. they were crawling down behind the false back of the cupboard and emerging through a little gap in the sealant from where they fell onto the worktop. At least some of them did.  The rest of them had somehow found their way into the cupboard, where around 20 cups are stored and into the bread-bin which sits, conveniently for them, under the cupboard.

At least relieved that I had found the source of the problem, I removed the remains of the mouse,  rounded up all the maggots, removed all the cups from the cupboard and put them through the dishwasher, threw away all our bread and finally washed and bleached the cupboard, bread bin and worktop from top to bottom, inside and out. 

Then I remembered that we'd suspected  that we'd had a visit from a mouse in the kitchen a year or so before and had deployed a trap on top of the kitchen cupboard, which was then forgotten about.  Further investigation revealed that a duct from the kitchen extractor passed over the top of the kitchen cupboard and then out through the wall, where its exit had not been finished off properly, leaving a gap of no more than 5 or 6mm, which must be where the blighters got in. This has now been filled and I am very much hoping that we don't have another visit.

[SweetKingfisher1]

So this is the second night where no Cluster flies have been seen .

The only problem is we will have to go up into the loft for the containers with the Christmas pit's and pieces. Will any fly out or not?

Regards

Marina 

[Siddy]

Our 'Boat of Horror' this Sept on White Champagne us at the rear and sister at the front. Fishing gear on the rear roof and maggots inside a carrier bag to keep the dry. End of fishing I took stools in etc and put the kettle on and my sister put rods at rear.

I get up about 330 to the toilet to open the door and the large shower tray was dotted, on with the light and oh *&^&* so glaases on and on my knees picking and throw into the toilet acrade style no winning tickets coming out. so Kaz gets up and said I'll do that. Outside I went with torce for the sake of ducks it was covered, So the next 20 minutes flicking them off with the mop. Boat next to us must have thought  I had a cleaning OCD. Now I did this very quite till I got to the hand rail at the front and the mop clicked it oh dear. Back to bed.

Round the table in the morning me still not rattled my sister said what was you doing last night I got up and saw you outside and thought this is not a good time to ask lol. So I had to put on a show and gave her both barrels lol.

[JawsOrca]

I still bet that dad left his wallet at home...