Finding flies in a building is not just an annoyance—it’s a serious threat to human health and can impact the reputation of restaurants and other food handling establishments. Many of the flies that frequent the indoors spend their time in feces, dirty water, trash, and even dead animals. When it comes to flies, proper identification and finding the breeding sources are key to control.
The majority of flies around structures are either classified as small flies or large filth flies. Let’s take a closer look at these structure-invading flies:
Small flies
Small flies include fruit flies, phorid flies, fungus gnats, and drain flies. Fruit flies will often be found developing as maggots in rotten fruit and veggies but also may infest areas with sugary syrups like drip pans and soda stations. With drain flies and phorid flies, inspect areas where there is stagnant water with decaying organic material – think drains, of course, but also inside of trash cans, dumpsters, under equipment and broken tile. Tekko Trio Foam is an excellent option for control of small flies – focus applications into drains and other potential breeding sites. Fungus gnats are often associated with plants that have been overwatered. Simply allow plants to dry out or apply a product like Tekko Trio concentrate that allows for applications into the dirt of potted plants. For a deeper dive into identifying and managing small flies, check out our detailed blog "A Closer Look At Small Flies" here.
Filth flies (large flies)
Filth flies are larger flies that may be found indoors but most often are originating outdoors. House flies, blow flies, and flesh flies are some of the more common filth flies you may encounter around structures. These flies tend to hang around feces, trash, and dead animals and then will come indoors and land on food and other surfaces, so you really need to focus on keeping these flies out and finding their food and breeding areas. Granular baits can be applied around breeding areas and for quick knockdown of adult flies, apply Stryker or Stryker 54.
