“You try to kill a bunch and then it seems like more come out of nowhere. They always seem to want to hang around where the warmer stuff is. I’ve noticed they are everywhere. It’s really irritating.”
Halie has been wielding her flyswatter to try to get ahead of the flies getting into her home. She posted on the local Facebook page looking for advice and is trying one of the recommendations. She is mixing peppermint essential oil in water and spraying it around her doors and windows. The jury is still out if the concoction will work, but she’s hoping it’ll work sooner rather than later.
Leslie Herman, who lives on a farm in the area, said she had seen an increase in the number of flies as well. Especially around the livestock. She is unsure if the increase is due to the higher number of animals and the amount of manure created, but she has noticed a rise. While Herman does have flies coming into her home, she has stayed away from the sticky tapes and has focussed on keeping the flies off her horses with fly spray.
We reached out to ‘fly expert’ Dr. Jewiss-Gaines, an Entomologist in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. We sent him a couple of photos of flies, and he believes they may be from a couple of different fly families. He said the Calliphoridae are similar in size and shape to common houseflies but often have a shiny reflective body. Sarcophagidae, another family he believes present, often have distinctive black racing stripes.
He said that the prolonged hot weather Saskatchewan saw this year may have contributed to the increase. “Generally, when insects are developing in their larval or egg form, the rate at which they develop is largely dependent on the environmental conditions. Generally, the warmer and more favourable weather is for development, the faster insects will develop. Probably what has happened is these flies have snuck an extra generation in and done an extra boom in development because of the warmer weather and more favourable conditions.” He said in rural areas and areas with livestock; they would thrive in the dung and the carrion in the fields.
“When it comes to climate change that’s something that can really be affected is the number of development cycles that insects can get through the summer, and you might get an extra long season before they hibernate.”
Dr. Jewiss-Gaines said there is a family of flies called the cluster fly, named because people often find them clustering in houses in the wintertime. “That’s a normal behaviour to see as things start to cool down. There could have been a population boom from favourable environmental factors. If it’s starting to cool down, they might be trying to cluster indoors.”
Dan Zurowski of Mike’s Home Centre in Southey says he has sold out of the sticky fly strips a few times this year and is expecting more in by Monday. He said while he hasn’t noticed an increase in the flies over any other year, he has noticed a huge increase in wasps. He says he has sold five times the amount of wasp spray as he has typically. In addition to the sticky tape Zurowski also sells Raid and flyswatters to deal with the pests.
Perry Reavley of Critter Gitter Wildlife Control Services at Regina Beach has been in the pest control business for 17 years. He said that this time of the year, you see the house flies, drain flies and fruit flies trying to get in to survive the winter. Reavley said, “The big thing with any pest is exclusion, and keeping it out of the house. In homes it would be your doors, your windows, your screens on the windows the more things you can get sealed up you are really reducing the number that enter to begin with.” He said to deal with fruit flies, get rid of the vegetables and fruits. With drain flies, you start using enzyme treatments on drains, and with house flies, be careful of any organic matter. “They need a food source to lay their eggs in.”
He recommended fly ribbons, fly traps, as well as fly lights which he said work well. He said the light attracts the fly and a sticky board that wraps around the light.
Reavley said that we should see the numbers drop after a good frost. But, he said, if they are indoors and the breeding sites aren’t identified and dealt with, the problem could continue throughout the winter.
- Jenifer Argue, Local Journalism Initiative reporter, pest enthusiast
Note: These reports may be abridged for content