If you notice a great many flies buzzing around your home, then this can be a huge nuisance. House flies can infest your property, like other types of insects and rodents. Just like other types of pests, you should work to get rid of them. If you want to know why you should eradicate the infestation and also how you can go about doing this, keep reading.

Why Are House Flies A Concern?

House flies surely are a nuisance. The good news is that the common house fly does not live that long. While adult house flies do not live for 24 hours like many people think, they do have short lifespans that range from about 15 to 25 days. During this two to three week period, the flies spend the majority of their time eating, mating, and laying eggs. Female flies can lay 150 eggs or more at a time. A single female will lay about five or six batches of eggs within a few days. This means that a single female can create more than 750 new flies within just a month. This is a real concern if you do not want an out of control infestation in your home. 

Not only can house flies suddenly increase by the hundreds, but they can carry many different diseases. Specifically, they can carry hundreds of ailments that include typhoid, cholera, and tuberculosis. The flies pick up the diseases with their legs and feet as they land on trash and decaying matter. The pathogen can then be transferred to your kitchen counters, dining room table, or other objects in your home. When you touch these objects or prepare food, you and your family can become ill.

While the transfer of serious ailments is not as big of a concern in developed countries like the United States, the fecal matter of the flies is an issue. Flies do poop when they land, and you can end up ingesting the fecal matter. Much like other types of feces, it contains a great deal of bacteria. Also, flies regurgitate some of the contents of their stomach when they land, and this matter can end up on your food and hands as well.

How Can You Get Rid Of House Flies?

You may think that a simple fly swatter is a good way to get rid of house flies. However, this is not a good choice to kill the hundreds of flies that can invade your home. You can kill the adult flies with swatters and fly strips, but you will also need to identify the area where the fly eggs are being laid. This breeding site needs to be eradicated to stop the infestation. 

Flies lay their eggs on food sources so the larvae have a ready source of food available to them. Exposed compost heaps near your home, an uncovered trash bin, or even an outdoor pet food dish may be potential breeding grounds. Look around your home for any exposed or decayed food source and get rid of it. Look closely for larvae on the source. Larvae will look like small, white worms.

If the eradication of the breeding ground does not diminish the house flies in your home, then your infestation may already be out of control. There also may be several breeding ground areas that you were unable to locate. In this case, insecticides may need to be spread to get rid of the flies. This type of thing is best handled by a pest control business that knows about the right chemical to use and also how and where to add it to your home. Baits and traps may also be used if you are uncomfortable with using insecticides around your property.