A fly buzzing around the house may seem like a minor annoyance, but when flies begin appearing regularly in the kitchen, around food or near garbage areas, they can become much more than an inconvenience.
For homeowners in Wesley Chapel, Florida, our warm climate provides favorable conditions for flies throughout much of the year. House flies, fruit flies, drain flies and other small flying pests can find their way indoors looking for food, moisture and places to reproduce.
And because flies can move between unsanitary areas and the surfaces where your family prepares and eats food, controlling them is an important part of maintaining a cleaner, healthier home.
Why Are Flies Getting Into My Wesley Chapel Home?
Flies can enter through open doors, damaged screens, gaps around windows and other small openings. But when flies continue appearing inside a home, it’s important to determine whether something indoors is attracting or breeding them.
The kitchen is an obvious place to start.
Overripe fruit sitting on a counter top, food residue around appliances, an overflowing trash container, pet food or organic material inside a garbage disposal can attract different types of flies.
Bathrooms and kitchens can also experience drain fly problems when organic material accumulates inside drains.
Finding the source is important because simply killing the adult flies you see doesn’t necessarily eliminate the conditions producing them.
Flies Can Affect More Than the Appearance of Your Home
Few things ruin the appearance of a clean kitchen faster than flies crawling across the counter top or landing on food.
But there is a more important reason to take a recurring fly problem seriously.
House flies commonly feed and reproduce around garbage, decaying organic material, animal waste and other unsanitary environments. They can then travel from those areas to kitchen counters, dishes and food.
University of Florida IFAS explains that house flies can pick up disease-causing organisms from garbage, sewage and other contaminated sources and mechanically transfer pathogens to human and animal food. Researchers identify bacteria associated with house flies including Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter and E. coli-related organisms.
That doesn’t mean every fly entering your home will make someone sick. It does mean that flies don’t belong around the places where your family prepares and eats food.
Why Can a Fly Problem Grow So Quickly?
One reason flies can become such a persistent household pest is their ability to reproduce rapidly under favorable conditions.
According to UF/IFAS, house flies undergo four life stages egg, larva, pupa and adult and under warm conditions can complete their life cycle in as little as seven to ten days.
Florida’s climate makes identifying and eliminating potential breeding areas especially important.
If you’re continually swatting flies only to see more appear a few days later, there may be a source that needs to be identified.
Preventing Fly Problems in Wesley Chapel Homes
Good sanitation is one of the most important defenses against flies.
Food should be properly stored, spills and crumbs cleaned promptly, garbage containers kept covered, and overripe produce removed. Drains should also be kept clean, and doors and window screens should be checked for openings that allow flies inside.
Regular pest control service adds another layer of protection.
At Green Land Pest Control, we look at the conditions contributing to pest activity rather than simply treating the insect you happen to see. For many Central Florida homeowners, our custom pest control service can be an effective part of an ongoing program for monitoring and controlling common household pests.
The appropriate treatment always depends upon the type of fly, where it is coming from and the conditions present in the home.
Local Pest Control From a Family-Owned Company
Green Land has been serving families throughout Pasco County since 2002. We understand the insects and pest pressures homeowners experience in Wesley Chapel and surrounding Central Florida communities because this is our home too.
We’re a local, family-owned company not a national chain applying the same pest control program everywhere in the country.
If flies have started appearing around your kitchen, drains, garbage areas or elsewhere in your Wesley Chapel home, Green Land Pest Control can help determine what’s attracting them and recommend an appropriate approach.
Your kitchen should be a gathering place for your family not a landing place for flies.
Learn More About House Flies
The University of Florida IFAS Extension provides detailed information about house flies, including their life cycle, health concerns and methods of control. It’s an especially good outside reference because the information comes from Florida entomology experts.