House flies
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The most common fly found in and around homes.
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The adults are about 1/4 inch long and dull gray.
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The larvae or maggots are 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch long when mature. They are whitish, eyeless, legless and taper towards the front.
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Food varies from excrement to human food.
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Adults use their mouthparts to liquefy and pick up food and can mechanically transmit many disease pathogens.
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Female flies will seek out any warm, moist material that has sufficient food for larval development.
Management
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Locate larval breeding sites to clean up the area and/or eliminate them.
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Timely removal of trash and keeping garbage cans as dry and clean as possible is important. Use cans with tight-fitting lids.
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To prevent adults from entering homes, tighten screens, windows, and doors. Seal all holes and entry points. Make sure all vents are tightly screened.
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Adult flies can be trapped with baited fly traps or sticky fly tape.
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Spraying is generally not effective or recommended inside the home.
Blow flies, green bottle, and blue bottle flies
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Blow flies and bottle flies are similar in size to house flies but are metallic blue or green.
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These flies may breed in dead animals, feces and/or garbage depending on the species.
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If a large number of these flies are found in the house, they are usually breeding in the home or in the immediate area.
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Examples of breeding sites may be a dead mouse or squirrel in the attic or a dead bird in the chimney. The green bottle flies are commonly seen on pet feces outdoors.
Blow fly
Photo: Dr. Mike Raupp, University of Maryland
Green bottle fly
Photo: David Cappaert, Bugwood.org
Blue bottle fly
Photo: Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org
Management
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The life cycle is very short (2-4 weeks). So, as with the house flies, it is important to locate and eliminate the larval breeding site.
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This may involve timely removal of pet waste from the yard, locating a dead animal, or cleaning up garbage cans.
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Adult control is the same as for house flies.
Rev. 2020