If you’ve noticed drain flies in your house, you might consider calling an exterminator. However, a Houston residential plumber may be the best person to help you get rid of drain flies at the source. These common but unpleasant pests can be a sign of plumbing problems, so make sure you get the services you need to keep your plumbing in good condition and drain flies out of your home.
Have You Noticed Small Flies Near your Drains? You May Need Help from a Houston Residential Plumber!
How do you know if you have drain flies? These are small insects usually found near drains, like in your kitchen and bathroom. Even if your sink and other plumbing fixtures are clean, they can still appear in your home.
Drain flies can look really similar to fruit flies and gnats, so it’s easy to mistake them for other pests. One way to tell if you have drain flies is to cover your drains with tape. Just don’t cover them completely, because your drainage system needs airflow to work properly. Try putting the tape in an X shape so you still have some airflow.
Once you’ve taped your drains, leave them overnight, which is when drain flies are usually most active. In the morning, see if you have flies stuck to the tape. If so, there’s a good chance you have a drain fly problem on your hands.
What are Drain Flies?
Drain flies are also known as moth flies, filter flies, sink flies, and sewer flies. These bugs are small, about ⅛ of an inch or smaller, and usually either black, brown, or gray. Also, as their name suggests, they like to hang out around drains.
You find drain flies near drains because they feed on and breed in standing water and decaying organic materials. This sounds gross, but that’s exactly what you might find in your drains, such as food scraps in the kitchen drain and bacteria and dead skin cells in your bathroom drain.
If you have drain flies, there’s a good chance they’re breeding inside your drainage system. For instance, you might find eggs or larva in the sludge lining dirty drains. You can also often find them near plumbing or sewage leaks.
The good news about drain flies is they’re not harmful to humans. They don’t bite or spread pathogens like many other pests. However, they can be incredibly annoying and can signal problems with your plumbing. Therefore, it’s usually best not to ignore them. Instead, there are a few things you can try on your own to get rid of them or you can call your Houston residential plumber for help.
How to Get Rid of Drain Flies
Getting rid of drain flies can be tricky, depending on why they’ve taken up residence in your home. For instance, if you’ve been away for a while, it could just be that they were attracted to the water in unused drains. However, in other cases, it may mean something is amiss with your plumbing system.
Unfortunately, you can kill adult drain flies all you like and it usually won’t get rid of them completely. That’s because they reproduce quickly, laying even up to 100 eggs at a time. Even if you manage to kill all the adult drain flies in your home, more may hatch and start pestering you again. So, in order to get rid of drain flies, you need to destroy their breeding ground. That means looking for the source inside your home or plumbing.
A Houston Residential Plumber Can Help You Attack Drain Flies at the Source
Why would you call a Houston plumber for a drain fly problem? Well, drain flies often breed inside plumbing systems and plumbers are experts in that area of your home. There are three common reasons why you might have a drain fly infestation: drain buildup, plumbing leaks, and sewer leaks.
Gross, Sludgy Drains
Now, if you think drain flies are breeding in the gunk inside your drains, there are a few things you can try before calling a plumber. The key is to get rid of the slime that attracts the drain flies. Before you start pouring bleach, boiling water, pesticides, and chemical drain cleaners down your drains, remember that many of these things can damage your plumbing or septic system if you have one. Also, some of these things can get into other waterways and harm the environment.
Instead, start off by pouring a pot of hot –not boiling– water down the drain a few times a day. This can help break up sludge where the eggs and larvae are.
If that doesn’t seem to be helping, you can also try baking soda and vinegar. Allow that to sit overnight and then flush with warm water. If you have a pipe brush, you can try this as well. The idea is simply to clean out any buildup where drain flies might lay eggs.
If you’re still having problems with drain flies after a week or so of doing this, then it’s time to call a plumber. This may mean that you’re overdue for drain cleaning services. In these cases, we use professional tools and methods to clear away the drain buildup. We may even need specialized bio-cleaners to get rid of the sludge and kill the drain flies at their source.
Plumbing Leaks
Another reason you might have drain flies in your home is if you have an undetected plumbing leak. Drain flies love standing water, so if you’re finding these insects in your home, it could mean that you have standing water somewhere from a plumbing leak. Many leaks are hard to detect without a plumber’s assistance, so it’s important to call in the pros if you’ve been unsuccessful at ridding your home of drain flies, or if they keep coming back. We can use hydrostatic testing to identify leaks and then repair them to help prevent further damage and drain fly infestations and standing water.
Sewer Leaks
In addition to drain sludge and plumbing leaks, you might also notice a drain fly problem if you have a sewer leak. Remember how we said that drain flies like decaying organic material? Yeah, decaying organic material is a pretty good definition of sewage. In some cases, you can have a sewage leak without realizing it, which can attract pests like drain flies to your home. Once again, if you have persistent problems with drain flies in your home, you might need Houston sewer repair to help get rid of their breeding ground.
Preventing Drain Flies
So, whether you’re able to clear up a drain fly problem on your own or with help from your Houston plumber, we’re firm believers that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Therefore, we have some tips to help prevent drain flies in your home.
One of the first things you can do is make sure you use your drains regularly. If water just sits in your drains for long periods of time, it can attract drain flies. So, if you do have a few drains in your home that don’t get a lot of use, make it a habit to run water through them at least once a week.
Also, it’s important to get regular plumbing services to help keep your plumbing in good shape. This includes annual drain cleaning services to help prevent buildup inside your drain pipes. During drain cleaning services, we can also check for leaks and other issues that can increase your risk for drain flies in your home. Therefore, don’t forget to schedule regular inspection and maintenance services with your Houston plumber!
Get a Houston Residential Plumber out Fast with Santhoff Plumbing
Looking for quality plumbing services at a great value? Call our team at Santhoff Plumbing! We’ve been operating since 1974 and have become one of greater Houston’s leading plumbers. Our team goes above and beyond to make sure you’re fully satisfied and that your plumbing is in great repair. Call us now at (713) 360-2185 or schedule an appointment online today!