Season of flies: Why the heat helps them replicate

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Along with the heat, flies are synonymous with summer in Texas. Meteorologist Nick Bannin spoke with Wizzie Brown, an entomologist with Texas Agrilife, about what's causing the high number of flies and some ways to keep them away.

Meteorologist Nick Bannin: It seems like flies are everywhere now. Is there a fly season? And when are they most abundant?

Wizzie Brown, Texas Agrilife Entomologist: I think in Texas we have them year round, but when we get hotter temperatures, then they really start to become active and we really start to notice them.

Bannin: Is there a time of day that they're most likely?

Brown: They're more active during the daytime, you don't see them so active at night. So when it really starts to warm up with temperatures that we've been having recently, that can actually speed up their lifecycle. So it takes a shorter period of time from them to go to the egg to adult stage. And so we can really start getting large numbers quickly.

Bannin: What are they out doing? Why are we seeing them so frequently?

Brown: It depends on what kind of fly, but usually the people that are calling me about flies are calling about house flies and, generally, blow flies and... they will lay their eggs in, kind of, nasty funky stuff. So, it could be garbage, it could be compost piles, it could be pet waste in the back yard, it could be dead animals. So any... gross organic matter that might be decaying is where they're going to be laying their eggs. So they're actually beneficial, because when they lay their eggs on there, the maggots are then going to eat and break down that material. So they're helping to decompose things. But if the adult flies go from something like garbage to your food, then they can transfer bacteria and that can cause problems. And, of course, it does seem like if you're dining outside, they seem to come out of nowhere, and then you're flying and swatting them away as much as you can.

Bannin: Why are they attracted to your food?

Brown: Well, smells and that sort of thing. So it's, again, organic matter that they are coming in and it's not necessarily just outside, because, you know, I know in my house I have them flying around randomly, because you open up the door to go inside, and there seems to be flies that come in with you, so it can be a problem. I would definitely recommend if you're having issues in your house, I just get out the flyswatter and go to town. My cat also likes to chase them around and eat them, so that's a bonus.

If you're dining outdoors in your backyard then it may be that you want to do some things beforehand. I would recommend taking out your garbage and recycling on a regular basis not only from your house, but also making sure that you get that weekly pickup from the curbside service and if you're going on vacation, talk to your neighbors, have them take that garbage out to the curb so it gets taken off site and it's not there decaying and smelling and attracting the flies in. The other thing that goes along with that is...cleaning the garbage cans and recycle bins on a somewhat regular basis. I try to do mine quarterly, because if you look in there, that funk kind of starts to build up and that's enough for those flies to lay eggs in. So making sure that you hose them down with the garden hose. Sometimes I'll put some dish soap in there and kind of you know, spray that down and get it real kind of good and clean. Another thing, if you have pets picking up that pet waste on at least a weekly basis right now is going to be really important and getting that in the garbage and off site.

Bannin: Are there any chemical treatments that are reasonably effective, even if they're short term, for keeping them away from your backyard or keeping them away from an outdoor dining situation?

Brown: For homeowners, probably not so much. What I would recommend is that you can treat your garbage cans with- they have different fly baits and kind of contact pesticides that you can use to treat your garbage cans or recycle bins, but I wouldn't treat the areas where you're sitting. You could use fans to kind of keep them away. And then they also have a trap that you can put out for house flies and it looks like a plastic bag, but it has this little cone shape at the top that you put this stinky [substance] and that's what attracts the flies. And so you put water in the bottom and then the stinky stuff in there and the flies come in, they're attracted to the smell, they get stuck in the water, and they drown in there.

So you don't want to hang that next to your back door or wherever you're hanging out in the backyard, you want to put it away from wherever you are, so it's drawing those flies away. Kind of same thing if you're using fly paper or fly strips or things like that, hang those away from the area where you want them, because a lot of times those will have scents that are kind of associated with them, that will attract in the flies, and so you don't want to draw them into where you want to hang out.