Domestic Customer

Area manager for Northampton was called to a house in Northampton where a fly infestation had been reported.  The house was kept extremely clean with no apparent source for the flies to breed either inside the house or in the garden.  However there had been a number of occasions where large numbers of flies had entered the house.

Before treating the area samples of the flies were sent to a laboratory where it was found that they were flesh flies Sarcophaga carnaria.  This made the issue a rare one as the adult flies rarely come indoors.

The female fly is viviparous depositing larvae instead of eggs rapidly over a food source (such as a rodent carcass or decaying meat).  Fully developed larvae then enter the earth to pupate.

As flesh flies can fly considerable distances, with the assistance of the client and area manager did a thorough search of the neighbourhood and established that a garden three doors away had previously had problems with rodents, and a carcass was found and removed.

Once the likely source had been identified and the issue resolved, a treatment using a residual synthetic pyrethroid was made on the external and internal areas of the house and the situation was successfully brought under control.

As a final precautionary measure an aesthetically pleasing Electric Fly Killer using sticky board technology suitable for domestic environments was installed.

To date the problem has not recurred.