An online log home community for log home enthusiasts.

FLIES!

My husband and I built a log home as iur second home last year. Whenever we go up there, there are dead flies all over the floor and sills of the living/dining room. The last time we were there for a few days we bought traps and sticky tape to try to get rid of them. Now he is there and even with the traps, there are about 50 flies buzzing all around. How do we get kill them and stop the infestation?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wes on November 22, 2008 at 2:34pm: Check at your local livestock/feed store. They have many products that work. We use a product (can't remember the name) that comes in a small tube that you empty into a gallon plastic jar and add water till it is about 1/3 full. The top of the jar has openings for flies and other pests to crawl into the jar, but they cannot get back out.

One point of caution - this stuff STINKS. Do not get it on your hands, it will not come off for days. Be sure to place the jar quite a ways from places of occupation.

We have one of these near our barn at home and one at our cabin. The fly population has decreased significantly since we started using them.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by RP on November 25, 2008 at 12:19am: Jen:
What you and the others have are Cluster Flies. These flies are seldom seen until the fall when they converge onto homes looking to over-winter. They lay their eggs on earthworms so they cannot be controlled via sanitation. Many of them will enter through window molding (where the windows slide past each other), but also can enter through any logs not tightly sealed. They need little effort to push by the polyfoam gaskets between logs. You can caulk all you want, but they will find a way to enter. As they enter, they leave a pheromone (chemical) trail to let their cohorts know where they are so they can, yes, cluster.
The only cure is to use a residual synthetic pyrethroid on the outside in particular the areas they enter. I own a pest control company, so I get to buy the good stuff. A new product from Bayer hit the market too late this year, actually last week, called Temprid which I will apply next fall to my log home customers. Even the homes I treat will still get a few flies and asian lady beetles, but nowhere near the numbers they had seen. You can go to a Lowes Home Improvement store and buy different products that will help, but most homeowners don't have the spray rigs powerful enough to apply them into the cracks and crevices where they enter. You might call a few pest control companies late next summer and ask if they will treat for these problems. I treat a good mny homes in SW VA and NW NC in the fall. This year I have seen more Cluster flies and Asian Lady Beetles than in the past few years and they seemed to come in two different waves. Log Homes seem to be a haven for these critters.
Bug Man; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Neil Nostrand on December 26, 2008 at 6:47pm: This is in reply to the comment by Jen Harvey on Oct. 17, 2008 regarding the fly problem in log homes. We have a 10 year old handcrafted, chinked log home in Colorado. We are invaded by these "cluster" flies in the Fall. They congregate at the large windows on the south side of the home, buzzing against the glass for awhile, and then fall to the floor and die. Hundreds each day. Questions:
1. Can we purchase the Tempril mentioned in a reply in any retail stores?
2. Do you apply it annually, or just one time?
3. Since our home is chinked, we preserve it with a clear product so the chinking is not discolored. Will spraying exterior with Tempril be compatible with this?
4. When is the best time to to spray?
5. Can you use a standard garden sprayer?

Thanks for any help you can give.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tim Bullock on February 11, 2009 at 2:54pm: YUP, Cluster Flies for sure. There is a product out there called "Cluster Busters" which is a little carton filled with ground up egg shells........put on windowsills and they drop into the stuff and can't fly out.....discard when full. I am not sure of the actual name but it is stuff at the feed supply store that keeps flies off your horses.....pretty non toxic and should be sprayed late fall all over your logs.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Wilmes on February 12, 2009 at 11:20am: Funny, you have an exact problem we had faced in Ks. last year '08'. Unfortunately, some of the problem comes from moist areas, cracks in the walls, and around the doors,gables,1st log, and holes in the log extensions (corners). This couple went one step further than you, A bug light inside. We went to Ks. to strip the home down to the bare logs. We also removed any and all bad caulking. So yes, we started over. Sanded ,stained ,caulked, top coated, and log end sealed. Then we headed home. A few months later while watching some evening T.V. with the grandkids and grandmaw the call came. A very excited female voice saying something about "they were totally gone" ?huh? who is this? when I finally found out who I was speaking to, my chest stuck out proudly for a few weeks and the memory of the work that was done
hope this gives you some ideas. John; ▶ Reply to This