For the past week my 8 year old plum tree has been covered in flies. am at my wits end because droves of them are flying into my house. At first I sprayed the flies in the house with Raid housepest spray but when it did not have much affect on them I realized that they wer not the usual black houseflies. A quick walk around my rural garde soon came up with the source. A few days ago I sprayed the tree with a general insecticide but it ha not made any difference at all. I really do hope someone can help me with this, I have searched th internet and cannot find any information on this pest. Regards and thanks in advance, Eileen
No promises, but I use liquid Sevin as a spray. It gets almost everything that has bothered my garden. Don't use it on blooming plants because it will also kill your pollinators.
Before you rush out, check the following web site on Sevin:
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does not mention flies on it's list of targets. Not to say that Sevin won't work, but I would try and identify the fly first and try and get a pesticide perhaps more effective for the job. Take a few dead flies to your Garden Center or Extension
Center to identify it and get advice on the best pesticide for the job.
These flies deposit their eggs in manure, decaying garbage or dead animals. The only effective way to eliminate them is to find where they are laying eggs. If the plum has fruits, open a few up and see if they are infesting them (especially ones on the ground).
Otherwise, sniff (literally) around the area. You might discover a dead possum or raccoon hidden in weeds, or you might find a particularly fetid pile of garbage.
I once experienced an infestation of these and houseflies of epic proportions. I was living in the country, and a neighbor was making extra money by selling his topsoil. After he removed the best of it, he got a bright idea and allowed a dairy to dump truckloads of whey onto the subsoil as a soil amendment. Within a week, I literally could not open a door without a hundred of these flies entering the house. I've slogged through manure in a barnyard and been pestered by flies, but never experienced anything as extreme as this.
The flies are attracted to the smell of carrion, so one way to reduce their numbers slightly is to make a "big stinky" trap. Find a widemouthed gallon jug, and make a funnel of window screening to sit in the mouth of it. Clip the bottom of the cone so it is open only about 1/2" to 3/4" Then take a golf ball sized clump of raw hamburger and drop it in the bottle. Add water to about 1/2 way up the side of the hamburger ball. Place the cone on top and secure it with duct tape. Hang the bottle under the tree and away from the house - otherwise 1. you won't be able to stand the smell once it starts to work, and 2. animals will try to get to the meat in the bottle as it first starts to stink.
Flies will be attracted to the rotting meat and enter through the funnel, and not be able to escape. Their bodies will add to the stench. Trust me, it'll be bad, but it will significantly reduce the numbers of flies.
Use flypaper (hardware store item) to stop more of them. Hang some in your tree, put some by your doors and windows.
All this is only stopgap. You must find the eggs and eliminate the source if you want real relief. If the plum tree is harboring them and creating a breeding ground, I would remove it.
Thank you Harry for your informed and detailed reply I much appreciat
it, but to be honest I have been worried all morning since reading it. It all just seemed so awesome.
What surprised me was that a few years ago I replied to a newspaper ad from a local farmer selling horse manure. I for some silly reason wa thinking that a trailer load of manure would be like a ton at the most You can imagine my horror when I came home from work that day to fin in excess of 6 tons of it dumped at the front of my house! The amazin thing is despite it taking us weeks to shovel/wheelbarrow and spread th manure in my garden we were never bothered with the flies as we are now (p.s my husband will never let me forget this episode, he says next tim I'm on my own!!)
I'm sure that your situation is less than what I experienced. After my Hitchcock-like experience I became more sensitive to flies being around me. Now, at the first sign, I'm out there screaming "Die fly, DIE!" as I swat and set traps. :-)
Another thing I forgot to mention is that if a dead animal is the real source, the flies will only last a limited amount of time.
LOL, we've all done something like that. DW and I decided to take FLP up on the offer of free mulch from power line clearing. The load completely filled our double car driveway. Worse yet, the molds from the leaves and malleluca cuttings got into the air when I used my home mulcher to reduce the size of the chips. It laid me flat on my back for three months, and I'll NEVER get near mulch like that again.
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