Is Your Maine Home All of a Sudden Swarming with Big Giant Flies?

Something is always trying to get in your house, all year long.

I assume it's a thing everywhere, but it's always a battle to keep things out of your house, pretty much any time of year. Every fall I'm trying to keep the mice out. Every spring it's all about getting rid of the ants. And it seems all the time, I'm swatting big-ass flies. But they seem worst in winter and summer, which seems slightly odd.

And like clockwork, the flies have decided to show up at my place. It's funny too, because right after it started, I saw this post on Reddit, saying basically the same thing. Big, lumbering, slow flies that can barely carry their girth around the house. And they're super easy to kill because they're so dang slow.

So what's the deal?

Well, most likely those dopey big boys you see buzzing about are Cluster Flies. So this time of year is when they do their mating, and then they're underground for a spell, waiting to come out. When that happens, they head indoors and look for a place to hibernate over the winter months.

So when we start cranking up the heat for the winter and transition out of fall, we start to see them again indoors. Hence, all the wondering where the heck flies are coming from in the dead of winter. They like your warm house, frankly.

How can you get rid of them?

Sadly, it's pretty much common sense prevention that rids them over time. First and foremost, just swat them or even suck them up with the vacuum. You can also use an approved indoor pesticide to work on getting them under control. Traps and flypaper are also another way. You can also make sure the cracks in your doors and windows are taken care of, because that's how they're finding their way in to begin with.

On the other hand, they're flies. Will you ever get rid of them completely? Probably not. But it's worth a try. Good luck, and good hunting!

Maybe these cluster flies could be Maine's new state insect?