Is any one else still having problems with flies??? I thought for sure they would be all gone by now, but I have a ton of them getting into the house. My guess is this unusually warm weather...or do they flies stay year round in Virginia????

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), January 28, 2002

Answers

Hey, I noticed that too! I still have a few lady bugs in my shower too. I just don't have a heart to kill the ladies, but the flies on the other hand...

-- julie (jbritt@ceva.net), January 28, 2002.

Here is what I have found. Firstly I bought my house about 4 years ago. It is an old farm house (about turn of the century, Sears & Roebuck kit type). Do your flies are brownish, may have stripes on their bodies and are slow? Do they don't seem particularly interested in anything other than the window and seem to come out when it is warm? When they die do they seem to die with their tongues stuck to something (wall, window, ceiling)? These are cluster flies. They live in the soil, behind clapboards of old houses, and the such. From what I understand they do nothing, don't spread germs, ect. . . . They are an eye sore. Check with your county extension agent. I think you have to enject the soil in and around the house, I can't really remember.

As for lady bugs? I put mine to work this winter. I had brought my rosemary, and a bay tree into the house. The bay seemed to have sticky stuff all over the leaves but I couldn't see anything on them. I knew the lady bugs were hangingout in the tracks of the sliding glass door. Soooo, I went and scooped a handful of them and sprinkled them all over my plant. They loved the meal and whatever it was was taken care of. Now when I see a ladybug I take it to a plant and put it on to eat any little critters I can't see. Cheaper and better for my household than chemicals and maybe the lady bugs will live until spring and summer.

Let us know if your flies are cluster flies, I would be interested in what the extension agent says.

Susan

-- Susan northern MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), January 28, 2002.

No fly problems here, thanks to food grade Diatomaceous Earth. It's fed to the livestock; the flies can't breed in the manure. It's fed to the chooks and sprinkled in their pens. Rarely see a fly here. It's in the high 70's today.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), January 28, 2002.

I have them now. My neighbor put horses in a shed just across the creek about 75 yards from my house. I can only guess what it is going to be like this summer.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), January 28, 2002.

We are located in Central Virginia on the front range of the Blue Ridge. Yes, the flies seem very persistent this year and have lasted longer than in previous years. We really haven't had any long spells of nightly temperatures below twenty degrees and very little snow. It's been my observation in this part of the country that snow and extended periods of cold weather helps reduce the fly population. I don't think fly eggs are too deep underground.

Yesterday and today there were a lot of flies hatching from the ground and I could hear them buzzing all over the place. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think most flies hatch in the ground, and some do hatch in building cracks and crevices. Speading DE over several acres could get expensive. Most years we spread lime and other soil-test minerals, in late winter or very early spring, which helps improve the soil PH and seems to lower the fly hatch count in cow manure. I wish I could encourage some of my neigbors to improve their fly control techniques, including cattle rubs, pasture maintenance and so on. Sadly, one farm out of five trying to control flies is fighting an uphill battle.

We are restoring this old house and two years ago I mixed up a solution of half-turpentine and half-linseed oil and put it on the old dry wood under the windows that were being reworked. The next day the flies and fly hatchlings came out of those areas by the thousands. Don't know if it was the smell or what, but they certainly vacated those areas.

Anyway, yesterday I mixed up a batch of pyrethum-based barn spray and sprayed the entire yard and sides of the house. The buzzing stopped. It's warm again today and more flies are hatching. I went to town today and the bugs were splattering themselves all over the front of the car. It's more like summertime than mid-January.

It is supposed to be warm again tomorrow, and I intend to spray pyrethum up in the attic. I'm hoping the weather will turn cold again and freeze the newly hatched flies. I'd like it to stay cold for a while and would also like some more snow. My fields need the water.

-- Ed (ecpubs@lynchburg.net), January 28, 2002.

Thousands of ladybugs in the house again, YUCK!!!!

A few cluster flies as well, oh well, at least the weather is mild!!!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 29, 2002.