AlysrianXi
We live in northern Utah. We bought our home about 3 years ago (it's about 3 blocks from a landfill, but you wouldn't notice unless you went inside MY house) and the yard was a complete disaster. Just image a river rock acre of land, with a river made of river rocks dissecting my proprerty in half. Not to mention the poplar trees that attract these wasps, and are slowly trying to create MORE poplar trees. Our yard was the disaster yard, from the very start. My husband and I have agreed that if we had known about the yard before the snow melted, that we would NOT have bought the house.
We slowly made it so that our yard has GRASS! With the grass came NEW problems. We piled all of those rocks into random spots in the yard, and instantly noticed small black furry (2cm) spiders making egg cacoons attached to underneath the rocks. These spiders are NOW coming inside the house. There are millions of them outside, I have no idea what they are or if they are dangerous. I know, get rid of the rock piles. That is slow going, as it turns out the old owners decided to STEAL rocks from the neighbors. It's the joke of the neighborhood now that we are removing them. ;P I remove two rocks a day, and dump them near the local river on the way to drop my kidlet off at school. We can't take them to the dump, as the dump won't allow us to drop them there. I also have sprayed every rock pile and around the house every 2 weeks. It does not seem to stop them from multiplying. Note: I have also found a hobo spider, and a "basement" spider. But only one of each, and never since.
I also noticed about a year into moving into the house, we get MILLIONS of flies inside the home. We do NOT have screen doors (I'm investing in them next summer), and I have to hang 2 sticky fly strips in each room (that's a lot of rooms). I wind up replacing each of them at least once a week. Even in the winter (winter here this year was mid-oct, and I am still combatting the flies!).
I have made sure that the garbage cans are well away from the house to detract the flies from entering inside. I am also VERY OCD about cleaning. I have a "spring cleaning" EVERY month, at least. I am also still moving into our house (no boxes left!), so I am constantly re-arranging furniture and cleaning around/under/through it. BUT, we have ZERO clutter. I just don't know WHERE to put stuff yet. I also have been painting a room a month, so each room gets an overhaul before/after we paint. We have cats, but I do their liter box once a week. I keep their food in a closed storage container. Also, the flies don't seem attracted to the "cat area". I also made sure that most of our food is constantly put away in either sealed containers or put in the fridge once opened. The kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms and living areas are constantly swarmed with flies. I have four fly swatters, and taught the kidlets to use them. I spray them if I get fed up with the sticky strips not working.
We also get wasps. These are paper wasps, and we are ALL allergic to the stings. I have taken to carrying our EpiPens on us whenever we step outside the house. These wasps are attracted to the siding on our house, light fixtures, our new wood playset, the poplar trees, and our new wood kids' cottage. Even during the winter these wasps also do NOT leave. We spray them and then knock down their nests, but they ALWAYS come back to the same locations. I can count of 5 different hives outside my front door that are STILL active right now.
I don't know what to do anymore about all these pests! Any suggestions would be helpful. Please note that I have tried ALL different types of solutions/sprays to remove ALL of these pests. Trust me, google has been my friend for the past year or two. We're at our wits end. Being a military family, we just wanted to buy a home to grow old in. But, it seems like we might just sell the dang house to get out of here!
Help! I need some help getting rid of these bugs! We're stuck in the middle of an infestation!
Edit: guess I should also add that we had to call an exterminator the first week of moving in. I have them on speeddial now. We have spent over $4,000 on killing these bugs since moving in. It is getting too expensive to continue living here! You can't imagine how much money we have spent just trying to live pest free!
We don't live in the country and we don't live near a river. The old owners gathered these rocks from a river, previous neighbors, and who knows where. The closest river is about a mile away. We live in a cul de sac. However, we're the ONLY ones dealing with these bugs. My closest neighbors get a few spiders from our yard, but zero flies and no wasps. Our yard actually extends BACK behind our house, not to the sides at all. Our neighbors are about 20-30 feet on either side of us. It's a great plot of land.
My main concern is the cost of it all. Besides being allergic, having to budget $200 for bug killer materials every two weeks is too expensive for us. We had no idea that this would happen! What a disaster!
I automatically assumed it the was the landfill causing the flies to gravitate towards the homes here. Our other neighbors DO get flies, but nowhere near the extent we have gotten. Shoot! Even the flies started coming inside the house within a week
I am also talking about MILLIONS of flies, spiders, and wasps. I'm not trying to "kill the outdoors". I'm trying to have a HOME in a cul de sac. I can't even COUNT them all. I walk in my front door and it's like a swam of flies, so bad you can't breathe. Lately, we've been staying in a hotel it's been that bad.
As per the spiders? MILLIONS. Can't send the kids out to play. Too scared they are danerous. They keep laying eggs too. Move a rock? See 50 skitter away.
Wasps? Tried to remove the hives, they come back. Even in winter. They are supposed to migrate in the winter. These paper wasps don't. MILLIONS of them too. Husband bought a beekeepers suit jic. Can't walk in the front door. Must ALWAYS drive car into the garage, and enter through the garage door. Thank god no bee hives inside there.
I'm not talking about a SMALL amount here. If it was a small amount, I would be fine. My husband is from ND, and lived
on a farm. I lived in GA, on a farm. We've lived ALL over the world. There are MILLIONS of these bugs! This is a cul de sac, in the middle of TOWN! Help!
The "river" in the middle of our property was "created" by the old owners. It's not a river, never filled with water. It was a trench dug in the middle of our property and filled with river rocks they had collected. It wasn't a REAL river. It was also the FIRST thing we filled and fixed. Our entire yard is grass and trees now. With the occassional spots of rocks piled up along the back border of our propert.
The old owners made our entire yard a "rock bed". There was ZERO grass and ZERO water. We removed the rocks because they were hazards sticking up and random things like rusted nails throughout the yard. Who wants a river made of rocks cutting their property in half?? It wasn't even a "river".
Answer
You should move.
That sounds awfully blunt and not especially helpful, I know...but still. Being close to the river bed puts you close to water, and bugs like water. A moist environment makes it good for flies. Having all those nooks and crannies in the rock piles makes a nice little environment for spiders, too.
Frankly, as allergic as you are and as obviously upset by all the bugs as you are, you shouldn't be out in the country at all. There's no place on Earth where you're going to get completely away from bugs of some kind or another (literal fact: flies have been found at McMurdo Base in Antarctica), so at some point you have to resign yourself to the inevitable presence of at least a FEW bugs. Most people can't afford the stringent sequestration and elimination processes that remove every last undesired lifeform for, say, microelectronics assembly clean rooms.
You won't get rid of the flies. Being so close to the river, you just won't. Eliminating the rock piles may eliminate the spiders; not knowing the species I couldn't begin to guess closer than that. And where there are trees, there will be wasps. Where there is siding, there will be wasps. I know that last from painful experience.
You might be happier in Salt Lake City, in an apartment. Because as it stands, you are trying to kill the Great Outdoors and I have to tell you, the Great Outdoors is both stronger and more patient than you, and will win whatever battle you bring against it.
Good luck.
[edit]
Okay, I guess I misinterpreted your earlier statements. Not next to a river: got it.
Somehow or other, here at work one of my buildings gets a fly hatch every spring. The basement just fills up with flies. Concentrated effort (lots of flypaper, no poisons) has radically reduced their numbers but not eliminated them, and I've been working on it for 16 years. Gotta get them all before they get a chance to breed and lay eggs; where they lay them I have no idea, and where precisely they come in from I also cannot determine.
However, you say your problem is the yard and paradoxically it's pretty late in the year. Again I have only one recommendation: move. Clearly this problem is causing you great emotional stress, get out before it drives you bonkers. Finding and correcting whatever microenvironment that makes this property such a nexus for bug activity may be well beyond affordability, I think you might be best off to just get the heck out.
You should move.
That sounds awfully blunt and not especially helpful, I know...but still. Being close to the river bed puts you close to water, and bugs like water. A moist environment makes it good for flies. Having all those nooks and crannies in the rock piles makes a nice little environment for spiders, too.
Frankly, as allergic as you are and as obviously upset by all the bugs as you are, you shouldn't be out in the country at all. There's no place on Earth where you're going to get completely away from bugs of some kind or another (literal fact: flies have been found at McMurdo Base in Antarctica), so at some point you have to resign yourself to the inevitable presence of at least a FEW bugs. Most people can't afford the stringent sequestration and elimination processes that remove every last undesired lifeform for, say, microelectronics assembly clean rooms.
You won't get rid of the flies. Being so close to the river, you just won't. Eliminating the rock piles may eliminate the spiders; not knowing the species I couldn't begin to guess closer than that. And where there are trees, there will be wasps. Where there is siding, there will be wasps. I know that last from painful experience.
You might be happier in Salt Lake City, in an apartment. Because as it stands, you are trying to kill the Great Outdoors and I have to tell you, the Great Outdoors is both stronger and more patient than you, and will win whatever battle you bring against it.
Good luck.
[edit]
Okay, I guess I misinterpreted your earlier statements. Not next to a river: got it.
Somehow or other, here at work one of my buildings gets a fly hatch every spring. The basement just fills up with flies. Concentrated effort (lots of flypaper, no poisons) has radically reduced their numbers but not eliminated them, and I've been working on it for 16 years. Gotta get them all before they get a chance to breed and lay eggs; where they lay them I have no idea, and where precisely they come in from I also cannot determine.
However, you say your problem is the yard and paradoxically it's pretty late in the year. Again I have only one recommendation: move. Clearly this problem is causing you great emotional stress, get out before it drives you bonkers. Finding and correcting whatever microenvironment that makes this property such a nexus for bug activity may be well beyond affordability, I think you might be best off to just get the heck out.
Flies, Spiders, and Wasps...?
AlysrianXi
We live in northern Utah. We bought our home about 3 years ago (it's about 3 blocks from a landfill, but you wouldn't notice unless you went inside MY house) and the yard was a complete disaster. Just image a river rock acre of land, with a river made of river rocks dissecting my proprerty in half. Not to mention the poplar trees that attract these wasps, and are slowly trying to create MORE poplar trees. Our yard was the disaster yard, from the very start. My husband and I have agreed that if we had known about the yard before the snow melted, that we would NOT have bought the house.
We slowly made it so that our yard has GRASS! With the grass came NEW problems. We piled all of those rocks into random spots in the yard, and instantly noticed small black furry (2cm) spiders making egg cacoons attached to underneath the rocks. These spiders are NOW coming inside the house. There are millions of them outside, I have no idea what they are or if they are dangerous. I know, get rid of the rock piles. That is slow going, as it turns out the old owners decided to STEAL rocks from the neighbors. It's the joke of the neighborhood now that we are removing them. ;P I remove two rocks a day, and dump them near the local river on the way to drop my kidlet off at school. We can't take them to the dump, as the dump won't allow us to drop them there. I also have sprayed every rock pile and around the house every 2 weeks. It does not seem to stop them from multiplying. Note: I have also found a hobo spider, and a "basement" spider. But only one of each, and never since.
I also noticed about a year into moving into the house, we get MILLIONS of flies inside the home. We do NOT have screen doors (I'm investing in them next summer), and I have to hang 2 sticky fly strips in each room (that's a lot of rooms). I wind up replacing each of them at least once a week. Even in the winter (winter here this year was mid-oct, and I am still combatting the flies!).
I have made sure that the garbage cans are well away from the house to detract the flies from entering inside. I am also VERY OCD about cleaning. I have a "spring cleaning" EVERY month, at least. I am also still moving into our house (no boxes left!), so I am constantly re-arranging furniture and cleaning around/under/through it. BUT, we have ZERO clutter. I just don't know WHERE to put stuff yet. I also have been painting a room a month, so each room gets an overhaul before/after we paint. We have cats, but I do their liter box once a week. I keep their food in a closed storage container. Also, the flies don't seem attracted to the "cat area". I also made sure that most of our food is constantly put away in either sealed containers or put in the fridge once opened. The kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms and living areas are constantly swarmed with flies. I have four fly swatters, and taught the kidlets to use them. I spray them if I get fed up with the sticky strips not working.
We also get wasps. These are paper wasps, and we are ALL allergic to the stings. I have taken to carrying our EpiPens on us whenever we step outside the house. These wasps are attracted to the siding on our house, light fixtures, our new wood playset, the poplar trees, and our new wood kids' cottage. Even during the winter these wasps also do NOT leave. We spray them and then knock down their nests, but they ALWAYS come back to the same locations. I can count of 5 different hives outside my front door that are STILL active right now.
I don't know what to do anymore about all these pests! Any suggestions would be helpful. Please note that I have tried ALL different types of solutions/sprays to remove ALL of these pests. Trust me, google has been my friend for the past year or two. We're at our wits end. Being a military family, we just wanted to buy a home to grow old in. But, it seems like we might just sell the dang house to get out of here!
Help! I need some help getting rid of these bugs! We're stuck in the middle of an infestation!
Edit: guess I should also add that we had to call an exterminator the first week of moving in. I have them on speeddial now. We have spent over $4,000 on killing these bugs since moving in. It is getting too expensive to continue living here! You can't imagine how much money we have spent just trying to live pest free!
We don't live in the country and we don't live near a river. The old owners gathered these rocks from a river, previous neighbors, and who knows where. The closest river is about a mile away. We live in a cul de sac. However, we're the ONLY ones dealing with these bugs. My closest neighbors get a few spiders from our yard, but zero flies and no wasps. Our yard actually extends BACK behind our house, not to the sides at all. Our neighbors are about 20-30 feet on either side of us. It's a great plot of land.
My main concern is the cost of it all. Besides being allergic, having to budget $200 for bug killer materials every two weeks is too expensive for us. We had no idea that this would happen! What a disaster!
I automatically assumed it the was the landfill causing the flies to gravitate towards the homes here. Our other neighbors DO get flies, but nowhere near the extent we have gotten. Shoot! Even the flies started coming inside the house within a week of moving in.
Answer
WOW! You have a house full. If it's as bad as you say, you have a problem that is almost too much to handle. You seem to be doing all the right things, but not getting ahead of the critter population.
1. Secure the house so they can no longer get in. Caulk all cracks, fill holes, and put screens on all the windows and doors.
2. Bomb the house. You can buy cans of "Fogger" at the local hardware store or Home Center. Each will do a single 12 x 12 room. Follow the directions on the can: close up the house, open the cabinets and closet doors, turn off pilot lights, set them off and evacuate until fumigation is complete.
3. Fly papers are good, but insufficient for the size of your pest problem. Go to a Farm store and get fly and wasp traps that are designed for use on ranches, in barns, and in animal breeding/husbandry areas. Place them inside and outside the house.
4. Do what you can to encourage animals that feed on insects. Bats, lizards, frogs, and birds will help reduce the infestation.
5. Keep the doors and windows closed or make sure that screens are securely in place when they are open.
Contact the County health representative in your area, or a local university for further assistance in getting the pests under control. Good Luck
AL
WOW! You have a house full. If it's as bad as you say, you have a problem that is almost too much to handle. You seem to be doing all the right things, but not getting ahead of the critter population.
1. Secure the house so they can no longer get in. Caulk all cracks, fill holes, and put screens on all the windows and doors.
2. Bomb the house. You can buy cans of "Fogger" at the local hardware store or Home Center. Each will do a single 12 x 12 room. Follow the directions on the can: close up the house, open the cabinets and closet doors, turn off pilot lights, set them off and evacuate until fumigation is complete.
3. Fly papers are good, but insufficient for the size of your pest problem. Go to a Farm store and get fly and wasp traps that are designed for use on ranches, in barns, and in animal breeding/husbandry areas. Place them inside and outside the house.
4. Do what you can to encourage animals that feed on insects. Bats, lizards, frogs, and birds will help reduce the infestation.
5. Keep the doors and windows closed or make sure that screens are securely in place when they are open.
Contact the County health representative in your area, or a local university for further assistance in getting the pests under control. Good Luck
AL
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
Title Post: Flies, Spiders, and Wasps...?
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment