I'm a magnet for dying flies

This has been happening for several years, and happened in my parents' house too. Flies will gravitate towards me and buzz around the room I'm in, and then drop dead. I used to hear them plop on the carpet in my old bedroom where there were no animals. I don't have food, or empty food bowls/plates with me for more than ten minutes at a time. I'm crazy about dishes, so they never sit.

Now in my own apartment, I spend most of my time in the bird room/office and I always hear flies spazzing out as they drop, but I don't always see them. If I do and they're still kicking, I scoop them up in a little box and take them out to the cats in the other room to play with. The flies are literally NOWHERE else in the entire apartment, all year round. Yet all year round, they're with ME.

I decided to do some extra cleaning in the bird room today and when I took my beach towel down from the window (held there to keep drafts out during the winter), no less than 50 flies were there, stuck in the towel, on the window sill, on the floor, and in the fold of my curtain. There are legs everywhere. Some little fruit flies, which I could understand because my birds get moist food that's made of pureed fruits and vegetables and I have a few houseplants in here. A large amount of them are houseflies though!

I wish it was as easy as asking how to kill them, but apparently I'm good enough at that because they come to me to die. Do I just have a freaky aura of death or can anyone else sympathize? lol

Gross dead fly pictures! This was after I swept up a bunch. I need to vacuum the guys stuck in the window cracks. I don't want to try and sweep in there and have the legs break off and fly bits popping out at my face.




After I opened and shook out that one curtain.

Do they have spotty wings? If so, they're cluster flies, and they do seem to make a sport of dying all over windowsills :lol3:. They overwinter indoors hiding and don't always make it outside in the spring. They don't breed inside so it's nothing you can fix---inside is just warmer than outside.

If they are actual houseflies. . .huh, I don't know. That is kinda weird.

Creepy!!!  But that got me wondering, so I googled.  It's not regular flies, but it might help shed some light?

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Undiag...r-Fruit-flies-following-me/show/202117?page=1

Here are more links:

https://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090425034957AA27zR7

https://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111013050304AA8nokT




 

I'm dealing with fruit flies.  None of the room foggers seem to kill them all.  Any suggestions?

No spotty wings. I just checked the few I put on the top of my garbage can in here.

Thanks for the links!

I've tried to Google it before, but it's hard to find something that's specific to the issue that doesn't make me sound downright insane, haha! I use a crystal salt block (the brand is just The Crystal) as a deodorant, so it's unscented and gets absorbed right into my skin. I do notice that my sweat from a hard workout doesn't smell like typical sweat. My boyfriend has commented on it too. It's definitely not BO and it's not strong, but neither of us has ever smelled it on or from another person before. I seldom sweat in my home to begin with. Contrarily, most of the time I feel cold. The flies have been around consistently enough that my changing shampoos or soaps seems unrelated - I've used fruity and not so fruity scents, even baby shampoo. I shower everyday and bounce back and forth between shampooing every day or every other day. I like how a lot of the answers are like "well, do you bathe?" Hahaha.

The blood type theory is interesting. House flies aren't biters, but there could be something about what my skin excretes. I don't know my blood type, and I haven't been tested for any specific conditions. I eat a largely vegetarian diet with very limited dairy and red meat, and no alcohol, which someone else commented on (they said they were trying to eat less meat and dairy). The flies very fortunately don't actually follow me. They just find the room I frequent and drop dead, lmao.

When I'm outside or camping, flies don't bother me. Mosquitoes, on the other hand, will try and eat me alive. Camping means I'm with a bunch of people who are paler, sweatier, and full of alcohol - usually beer - so that kind of balances who the mosquitoes hang around.

It's perplexing!

AngelinaCat said:

 
I'm dealing with fruit flies.  None of the room foggers seem to kill them all.  Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

For fruit flies near our plants, I get an empty cat food tin, open and drop a few capsules of apple cider vinegar in (if you have apple cider vinegar as the liquid, that obviously works too - something we did to make it a bit more enticing was adding a couple drops of white wine), add hot water, mix it around, and then add 2-3 drops of dish soap. They're attracted to the smelly vinegar, but once they touch the surface of the water, the soapy thickness causes their legs to stick and they can't get back out. We've caught so many this way. It's really effective! The cats don't take interest either because it stinks.

AngelinaCat said:

 
I'm dealing with fruit flies.  None of the room foggers seem to kill them all.  Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Easy peasy!

Empty jar

Fill about 1 inch from the top with Apple Cider Vinegar

Enough sugar until it won't dissolve anymore.

GENTLY stir the sugar and vinegar (you don't want to splash up the side of the jar)

Add 1 drop of clear dish soap

GENTLY stir again to combine the soap. Don't create suds.

The soap breaks the surface tension of the vinegar.

Leave the jar out. No need to add a paper cone or lid with a million holes. Just leave the open jar on the counter and watch the files flock to  it.

Natalie_ca said:

 
Easy peasy!

Empty jar

Fill about 1 inch from the top with Apple Cider Vinegar

Enough sugar until it won't dissolve anymore.

GENTLY stir the sugar and vinegar (you don't want to splash up the side of the jar)

Add 1 drop of clear dish soap

GENTLY stir again to combine the soap. Don't create suds.

The soap breaks the surface tension of the vinegar.

Leave the jar out. No need to add a paper cone or lid with a million holes. Just leave the open jar on the counter and watch the files flock to  it.

Click to expand...

I'll try it.  How big, or small should the jar be?

Thanks also PinkDagger, I will try that also.

We pretty much just gave the same thing with different proportions, haha! That method is pretty tried and true. IMO you can essentially use any sized jar as long as it's open enough for flies to get into the opening easily. We've used shot glasses with very small amounts in each, scattered around the kitchen when it was very problematic for us, but we've used regular drinking cups/glasses too. Now I use the cat food tins for convenience because we don't have any other uses for them anyway. I would say don't go too big because then you end up dumping a lot out and having a LOT of little dead fly bodies, which is kind of gross to deal with. I feel like it's more manageable on a psychological level for me to deal with more smaller containers.

AngelinaCat said:

 
I'll try it.  How big, or small should the jar be?

Thanks also PinkDagger, I will try that also.

Click to expand...

I just use a small empty jam jar, or something about that size.  Even a glass will do.  Just remember to fill whatever you use to about 1 inch from the top.  And make sure the sugar you add is enough so it won't dissolve anymore.  Don't forget the soap.  1 or 2 drops is all you need.