Loft is infested with flies

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Recently moved into this house over winter and we have noticed that there is a large number of flies in the loft, every time we open the hatch to the loft about 7-10 flies come down and start causing hovac.

They are a nuisance, iv purchased an automatic spray killer dispenser, and iv set this up, iv also been in the loft today, with fly killer to spray them all and then hoover them out, they appear to be in the nesting in the loft insulation.

Does anyone have any tips on how to remove/prevent this? iv read its quite common to have flies nest in the loft spaces over winter.
 
Have a read up on cluster flies. I had them hibernating in the frame of a rarely used velux window. Opened it one winter and it was like something out of a horror film as they fell into the room
 
If they are docile/slow moving/able to be touched when it's cold then they are most probably cluster flies. Smaller than a bluebottle. You're wasting your money trying to get rid of them unless you attic is perfectly sealed.
 
I had a similar issue with cluster flies, seriously unpleasant.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0144Z7H5C

I bought two smoke bombs that are laced with Permethrin which proved really effective at exterminating them, you will be shocked at how many actually appear dead on the ground. Make sure you close the loft hatch and vacate the house when you set it off and give it a minimum of 3 hours before going back and open windows.

From reading up on cluster flies they naturally hibernate in lofts through winter, after hatching in fields during the summer, and they are drawn to lofts where they can detect the scent of other cluster flies, so it's something you have to deal with and eradicate.
 
By any chance is your house a bit of a a doer upper? I had the same issue, big fat dosial files would appear, it got worse in the summer when the weather is warming. We were killing around 10 a day with sticky paper.

We ended up finding them in the loft under old rockwool insulation. Ended up removing this, cleaning the loft (vacuum etc) and laying new insulation.

In total took us around a year to find the issue then for the flys all to disappear.
 
once every couple of years a starling falls down the chimney and dies. these big flies appear a few days later - hundreds of them. end up running the fire on afor a few hours at full whack then taping up the fireplace for a week. less hassle than disconnecting and removing the gas fire and pulling out the carcass
 
reilly said:
By any chance is your house a bit of a a doer upper? I had the same issue, big fat dosial files would appear, it got worse in the summer when the weather is warming. We were killing around 10 a day with sticky paper.

We ended up finding them in the loft under old rockwool insulation. Ended up removing this, cleaning the loft (vacuum etc) and laying new insulation.

In total took us around a year to find the issue then for the flys all to disappear.
Click to expand...

no it’s not a doer upper, Iv read it’s quite common for cluster flies to hibernate during winter months. They can get in by any cracks in the roof, but the roof isn’t leaking so when it’s summer I will investigate more where they are getting in.


Just to update , I purchased an automatic dispenser , which dispenses a fly killer spray in the loft and it appears to have sorted the issue out.

I also went up in the loft with spray killer and killed about 50 flies hoovered them up.

so far I haven’t encountered anymore flies
 
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