Get Ready: Cluster Fly Season is Coming Quickly!
It’s that time again! No, not back to school time, though we bet, if you are a parent, by this time you can’t wait.
Like children, a certain type of pest likes to cluster together and this is where the bug gets its common name. If you haven’t guessed by now, we are referring to the Cluster Fly. Large, dark grey and rather slow moving, Cluster Flies begin their migration indoors between August 15th and August 30th.
The adults will go dormant over winter in your home or business and emerge in the spring to mate. The eggs are laid in cracks in the soil and hatch in about three days. This is the cool part of the whole process as the larvae are parasitoids, which is a fancy word for larvae that are parasites that eventually kill their hosts. The development time can vary from 27 to 39 days and there is usually four generations per year.
If you are wondering if you are dealing with Cluster Flies, one way of making sure is that they, if swatted or crushed, give off a buckwheat honey odor. Why would anyone want to go around sniffing crushed flies? It will assist to identify this fly species.
If treated too soon, Cluster Flies may gain access before frost sets in, and if treated too late, the Cluster Flies will enter before the preventive treatment. Prepare to protect your home and business, for if they have begun to cluster together to begin their migration inside, preventive treatment will come too late, and the best approach will be to remove them physically with a Hepa-Vac as well as treating vertical walls
Exclude them from entering your home/business by sealing every accessible entry point (easier said than done). Installing an insect fly light (trapped onto a sticky pad on the bottom) will provide the most environmentally sound manner of doing so along with the Hepa-Vac.
Don’t get behind when dealing with Cluster Flies! Watch for them in the next few weeks, and if you have any issues, call Catseye for help.