Knowledgebase

flies in house #713234

Asked August 14, 2020, 10:54 AM EDT

A client is seeing a number of the attached picture of flies in her house. She is seeing them mostly in a bathroom. She does live near a lake. They are small flies not the size of an average house fly. Your help with identifying this pest is appreciated.

Antrim County Michigan

Expert Response

Those are "moth flies", also known as drain flies.  The immature stages are worm-like, long and thin compared to their width, usually darkly colored, and semi-aquatic.  In buildings the immature stages live in drains, especially floor drains or any drain that does not get a lot of use.  In drains, they live at or just above the water line in the drain trap.  A occasional potful of scalding hot water poured very quickly in to the drain will kill a good portion of them.  Running a drain cleaning brush down through the trap and then running a great deal of water through the drain will also work.

There is just one other place that I have seen drain flies thrive-- in "worm composting" bins, if the system is kept just a bit too moist.

Erwin 'Duke' Elsner, Ph.D. Replied August 17, 2020, 2:09 PM EDT

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