The appearance of small green midges in the apartment: what are these insects and how to fight them?

The variety of small insects is very large. But, if small green midges are noticed in the apartment, then most likely it is the common lacewing (fleurnitsa), widespread throughout Europe. Unlike most midges, which feed on decay products of organic matter, it is a superpredator, eating other insect pests. Therefore, it is not attracted to spoiled foods, but to aphids or mealybugs. Gardeners often use lacewing to combat plant parasites, but its appearance in the house causes discomfort to its inhabitants.

How to withdraw

If flying bugs have infested your apartment, you should locate their place of residence in your home.
Inspect carpet pile, fur and wool products, window sills, door and window frames, baseboards. In the kitchen, check the storage areas for cereals and food shelves. There are several methods to combat the pest:

1. Mechanical involves the destruction of beetles and their larvae by cleaning with a vacuum cleaner, lazy machine or other improvised device.
2. Physical means creating uncomfortable conditions for their stay in the home. Freezing the room in winter helps to lower the air temperature, which will lead to the extinction of all individuals in the house. You can use a steam generator.
3. Chemical requires complete disinfection of the house with special pest control agents based on hydrogen phosphorous or phosphine. Carpets must be vacuumed thoroughly before treatment. In addition, be sure to treat the walls and backs of furniture at a distance of 150 cm from the floor. After treatment, it is necessary to ventilate the room and remove dead insects. If a place where bugs accumulate is discovered, local insecticides are used.

Sometimes they get rid of hated roommates with boric acid

It is not dangerous to humans, but in families with children and pets, this product should be used with caution. It can cause poisoning and cause allergies

Sticky traps or special tablets containing chemical compounds that are harmful to the pest will also come to the rescue.

For safety reasons, it is recommended to use chemicals in personal protective equipment (gloves, respirator, closed clothing). After treatment, the room should be well ventilated and wet cleaned.

If the above methods do not bring results, then you should resort to radical measures - ridding the apartment of old furniture, in which they can live in entire settlements.

You can try folk remedies for pest control. They are the safest for humans and pets:

• Place sachets with the scent of lavender, mint, tansy around the area;
• spray a solution of vinegar and hot water in proportions of 1 tbsp on furniture, window sills and baseboards. for 1 l.;
• dilute the pharmaceutical product pyrethroid permethrin with water and soak fur and woolen items in which pests have settled.

If you cannot remove this pest on your own, you need to call the sanitary service. Beetles will not leave the territory voluntarily.

Timely detection of insects in the house and immediate destruction will eliminate large-scale colonization of the home by these beetles.

Remedy for midges in the apartment

To combat Drosophila, both purchased and homemade products are used.

Midge trap in the kitchen

One of the effective methods of controlling midges is making a trap. It is easy to cope with this task, even without experience. Instructions:

1. Find a jar with a wide mouth and a lid.
2. Drill holes in the cover.
3. Pour apple cider vinegar into a container.
4. Close the jar.

Attracted by the aroma of apple cider vinegar, the pests will fly into the jar and drown.

Folk remedies for midges

Sometimes housewives fight midges with an ordinary vacuum cleaner

It is important to dispose of the contents of the bag outside the home.

Another popular remedy is horseradish. The root, cut into slices, is laid out around the room, the window is opened, and after a while the midges leave the room.

You can use verbena, ylang-ylang, clove or patchouli essential oil. A few drops applied to a cotton pad can repel annoying insects. Also, midges do not like the smell of vanilla and mint.

How to deal with midges in an apartment?

Today there are many effective ways to deal with uninvited guests:

• “Liquid soap + vinegar.” This smell serves as a bait for midges; once they fall into the solution, they cannot fly back.
• "Velcro." This option is suitable if you have a very large number of these midges in your house, and you don’t know how to get rid of them.
• "Orange + cloves." Several sticks of cloves are wrapped in orange peel and this “gift” is placed in the place where the concentration of midges is maximum.
• “Tobacco + garlic.” This method is used for problems with indoor plants. The garlic is crushed and placed in flower pots for 2 hours, after which it is removed. Then they put tobacco and dig it in with soil, not very deeply.

Life activity

When the owners know the peculiarities of the lifestyle and behavior of the fleurs, then it will be easier for them to protect their homes from their invasion. This will also help gardeners, on the contrary, create favorable conditions for their cultivation. Thus, the common lacewing has unique behavioral characteristics. Here are some of them:

• Maximum activity of adults is in the evening;
• does not tolerate prolonged exposure to direct sunlight;
• settles in shady and damp places: under leaves or in the grass;
• midges begin to crawl out of their shelters in spring at temperatures above 10°C;
• they flock to the bright light of electric lamps, thereby penetrating the house;
• lay several dozen eggs (on long threads) near aphid colonies.

The larvae spend the winter in attics, in cracks in houses or under the bark of trees. If the owners want to get rid of them, then efforts must be made to get them out of there.

These “defenders” can be found in a personal plot or vegetable garden. Those who work in greenhouses should also be attentive to the appearance of flannel plants. Still, experts even recommend adding these “orderlies” to your garden, orchard or greenhouse. They will help get rid of dozens of pests.

Diet

In nature, there are two types of midges: predators and non-predatory individuals. The latter feed exclusively on non-living organisms: aphid secretions, pollen or flower nectar. When asked whether the lacewing is a pest or a protector, the answer can be unequivocal that it works for the benefit of gardeners. Its larvae eat over 80 varieties of pests, such as:

• caterpillars;
• spider and other types of mites;
• shield insects;
• aphids and their larvae;
• moths;
• Colorado potato beetle eggs;
• leafhoppers;
• wood borers;
• mole;
• Poisonous spider cocoons.

The midge feeds only on soft-bodied insects. Over the course of 7 days, each individual destroys up to 200 units of aphids, insects or eggs. Females produce between 200 and 400 eggs in their lifetime.

Description of the insect

The common lacewing is a green midge with transparent wings. It belongs to the genus Chrysoperla, whose representatives prefer to feed on other insects, both larvae and adult midges. It is most active at night, and during the day it prefers to hide in secluded corners.

Its distinctive feature is its transparent elongated wings. Their span in particularly large specimens can reach 3 cm, although the body does not exceed 6 mm. If you examine the wings in the light, you can see that they are streaked with a whole network of veins that shine in the light.

The insect is common in regions with a climate suitable for its life: fleur-bearers cannot tolerate heat, which leads to their death, and at temperatures below approximately 15 °C they hibernate until warmer weather sets in. They are distributed throughout Europe with the exception of its northernmost latitudes. The common lacewing can also be found in Canada, the USA and some regions of Southeast Asia.

To wait out the cold winter, midges fly into outbuildings and human houses. There they climb into secluded places: for example, cracks in walls or furniture.

Reproduction

During her life, which lasts about 2 months, the female lacewing makes 2 clutches. Each of them contains 100–900 eggs.

Stages of insect development:

1. Eggs. They are attached to the underside of leaves by thin threads. At first the eggs are green, but then gradually darken.
2. Larvae. They appear after a few days and begin to actively feed. The length of their brown or reddish body is no more than 7 mm. They have a well-developed jaw apparatus. When attacking a victim, a paralytic poison is injected into their body.
3. A pupa that, after a few molts, becomes an adult flannel.
4. Imago, ready for procreation.

The larvae and adults are so voracious that cases of cannibalism are not uncommon among the species. In the conditions of the middle zone, only one generation of lacewings has time to appear per year, but in the southern regions up to 4 generations can have time to develop.

Are fruit flies dangerous? What do you need to know about them?

Let’s immediately answer the main question about any house flies. NO, fruit flies do not bite humans! They simply have nothing to do with it... Moreover, many experts claim that they cannot tolerate harmful pathogenic substances at all. Although, theoretically, fruit flies can become carriers of infection. But apparently this doesn't happen often in their lives (fruit flies don't travel much and don't live very long).

Why are fruit flies dangerous for humans?

1. Of course, these are the enemies of food production and public catering outlets. In rooms where a lot of food is stored, especially ripe fruits, flies appear quickly. As a result, food products are physically damaged

In some cases they are not paid attention to. And sometimes the product becomes completely unusable

As a result, large transcontinental fruit carriers suffer serious losses every year. Small businesses are also suffering. Owners of restaurants and greengrocers are simply tormented by how to get rid of unattractive insect nests.

2. They harm not only huge warehouses, but also small cellars with food. Farmers and those who like to stock up for the winter find midges in bags of flour and sugar, in potato storage, as well as on tomatoes and oranges laid out on the verandas. The presence of larvae in these fruits does not bode well for their owners and consumers. The sanitary situation here will deteriorate until the owners get down to business.

3. The midge is simply boring. It flies into the mouth, nose and eyes... stains wallpaper and snow-white curtains... scares guests and small children. In general, this is an unpleasant neighborhood.

4. They also harm the harvest that has not yet been harvested. Gardeners and owners of garden areas near their homes know that midges can easily “undermine” the fruits of your plants outdoors. Twin brothers of domestic fruit flies will also willingly populate your favorite apple trees, tomatoes, eggplants, apricots and peaches with their babies. Perhaps the damage from them will not even be noticed by the human eye and stomach. But who wants to eat fruit laden with insect larvae?

The situation is complicated by some species characteristics of these insects.

Do you know that:

1. Fruit midges are extremely prolific. A female Drosophila leaves almost 20 insects in one ovipositor. Moreover, they begin to reproduce within 8 hours after birth. By the way, experts warn: the larva turns into an adult fly in 8-10 days. This is non-stop.
2. They lay eggs directly under the skin of ripe or overripe fruits. True, the heroes of this article cannot bite through the too thick “skin”. Therefore, they almost never settle in whole watermelons, melons, etc. They prefer everything “soft”.
3. "Fruits" are able to lay offspring in decaying organic matter. Therefore, they settle in sinks with clogged drains along with sewer flies. Hence the confusion between these two species.
4. The midge is born early in the morning. A person is sleeping at this time and may not notice how hordes of insects have appeared from the emptiness in his house.
5. The taste preferences of fruit flies are extremely democratic - usually fruits. The Tephritid species alone feeds and reproduces on 400 plant species.
6. They also enter the house through open windows and entrance doors. The midge likes to live in one location, but can still make very serious flights on its weak wings if it is deprived of food. This is the basis for a simple principle in the fight against fruit flies: leave them without a nutrient medium... and they will stupidly fly away!
7. In nature, there are natural baits for midges. These are manure and lake water, spicy and sweet smells. Flies are even attracted to air fresheners if they smell like orange, lemon or cherry. If insects have not yet appeared in your home, it is better not to overdo it with these odors. Otherwise they will definitely arrive.
8. Fruit flies are slow but alert. They capture fast movements well and fly away. Therefore, when hunting for midges, move smoothly, like a Japanese ninja.
9. The midge loves moisture and does not like dry surfaces. She is almost not afraid of severe frost and loves alcohol.

Now that you know everything about them, it’s time to talk about how to get rid of midges in your apartment. Personally, we believe that fruit gnats do not necessarily need to be killed. They are not opposed to humans, and the harm they cause is accidental. True, to remove them “bloodlessly”, you need to spend more time. But for those who do not have time to wait, there are more radical measures. We'll talk about both of them below.

Traps

1. The most ordinary glass jar. Take a larger jar. Then put in it several pieces of slightly rotten or fresh fruit (it is worth noting that midges will fly to rotten fruits and vegetables faster). You can pour a little compote and put some sweet candies. Place the jar in a visible place or near the insects' habitat. Roll a funnel out of plain white paper. Insert it into the jar. This should be done with the tip down. This way, it will be easy for fruit flies to get into the jar, but they will never get back out. Wait until as many insects as possible are trapped and throw the contents of the jar outside. Never throw everything in the trash. There they will only continue to reproduce. How long do midges live in a trash can? Small colonies can live there for up to four months.
2. Take the most common plastic disposable cup. Put some sweet bait there. Even a used fruit aromatic tea bag will do. Cover the cup tightly with cling film. And make small holes in this film so that the midges can crawl through. Wait until a large number of midges (15-30 pieces) bite the bait.
3. Plastic bag. Take one garbage bag. Open it up as much as possible and place a few slices of fruit in the middle. Wait for the fruit flies to fly and close the bag quickly. Take it to an outdoor trash container.

Habitat

Emerald lucilia is common in many countries of the world with warm summer climates. Its peak activity occurs during the hottest time of the year. It is in the heat that decay processes most strongly emit an odor, which is a bait for insects. In addition to carrion, green-bellied flies are also attracted to other sources of unpleasant stench:

• feces;
• rotting fruits and berries;
• plants with a rotting smell;
• food waste landfills;
• fresh and salted fish;
• meat.

Some modern chemical-based products for controlling fruit flies

1. The Aeroxon Sticky Trap is designed to kill harmful insects on indoor plants. The trap has an attractive color. The glue is odorless and non-toxic.
2. Sticky tape for Raptor flies. The yellow color attracts flies, which stick to the adhesive layer.
3. Aeroxon Window Flycatcher Tape. An effective and safe remedy for midges.

Breeding whiteflies and sciarids on indoor flowers in an apartment

Simple remedies for whiteflies

1. The easiest and most harmless way to kill whiteflies is to manually remove insects from indoor plants. To do this, you need to remove the whitefly-infected leaves and loosen the soil in the pot. The entire plant must be treated with a soap solution.

2. You can place sticky tapes near indoor plants: adult whiteflies will stick to them.
3. Since the whitefly likes to live in the shade on the underside of leaves, you can scare it away with light: place sheets of foil near the flowers. The sun's rays, reflected, will fall on the underside of the leaves, where this pest lives.
4. If one of the indoor plants is most affected by the whitefly, then it may be better to sacrifice it and not spread the dangerous insect to other flowers.
5. Make an infusion of yarrow. Add a couple of spoons of dishwashing detergent to it. Treat the leaves of affected plants with this composition.
6. To prevent the appearance of whiteflies, spray the flowers with an infusion of dandelion leaves and roots every 10 days.
7. At the initial stage of whitefly spread, wipe the plants with garlic infusion (3-4 crushed cloves and 2 glasses of water).
8. Leave orange peels in water for 24 hours, then add 2 tablespoons of liquid soap. Spray on plants for several days in a row. Keep the product in the refrigerator.

Whitefly is a pest of indoor plants. Video

Means of combating sciarids

1. Dry the top layer of soil by 1–2 cm. Then the egg laying will die.
2. Make top drainage. Cover the soil with a layer of gravel or expanded clay. The drainage dries quickly after watering, and the pest is unable to lay eggs.
3. Remove dried leaves and flowers in a timely manner. Avoid watering plants with broths, drunken tea, milk, etc. Food products simply rot in the soil and help pests multiply.
4. Water the soil several times with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This remedy is considered quite effective.
5. Draw “Mashenka” chalk (for cockroaches) stripes on the top of the flower pots.
6. Use traps and adhesive tape.
7. Keep the house clean and tidy, promptly remove food waste that can become food for sciarids.

Sciarides. Video

The use of insecticides in residential areas should be treated with extreme caution. The most popular are Aktara and Aktellik.

You must strictly follow the instructions for using such products.

How to get rid of midges in the bathroom

In the bathroom, a butterfly (sewer fly) may appear near the drains. This insect is attracted to trash cans and clogged bathtub and sink drains.

Hence the methods of combating this disgusting insect.

Means to combat the butterfly

1. The main thing in the fight against butterflies is cleaning the sewer pipes. Pipes must be cleaned both mechanically (with a cable) and with modern means for clearing blockages. You can at least use the old folk method: pour soda into the drain and extinguish it with vinegar.
2. The trash can must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
3. Constantly monitor the cat litter if it is in the bathroom.
4. Hang adhesive tape in areas where insects appear.
5. Use midge traps.
6. Place containers with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and vegetable oil in the bathroom. Midges land on the surface of the mixture, but cannot take off, as their wings stick together.
7. Sewer flies really don't like the smell of chlorine. Treating bathroom surfaces with chlorine-containing cleaning products will help get rid of the unpleasant environment.

Reasons for appearance

Fleur girls rarely fly into apartments, but it still happens. While most house flies are attracted to a person’s home by leftover food, the common lacewing flies into an apartment in which aphids live on indoor plants. This is the main factor that provokes the appearance of an insect.

In August or September, the midge moves into a person’s home, sensing the approaching autumn cold. You can also bring it home along with wildflowers and items that have been outside for a long time.

How to protect yourself from insects in nature?

It is advisable to prepare protective compounds in advance, given that nature is a natural environment for a variety of biting midges. But, in addition to external means, you can protect your tent, marquee or surrounding area from midges. In addition, sometimes repellents are not available.

Formic acid

An effective insecticide can be found even in a forest, just find an anthill:

• a piece of cloth, for example a handkerchief, is spread on the top of the ant nest;
• on average, after a quarter of an hour it will be saturated with acid;
• The scarf can be removed from the anthill, freed from insects, and wiped over the exposed skin of the face and body.

We use scents that repel insects

Midges cannot tolerate many aromas; this quality can be used to scare away blood-sucking insects from their resting place:

• camphor is placed in a frying pan or in a tin can. The vessel needs to be heated from time to time to create steam. This will get rid of not only midges, but also mosquitoes;
• essential oil is dripped onto a fire source - a fire, heated dishes, a candle.

Bonfire and smoke

When making a fire, you can also use it as a repellent and even enhance the effect by adding dried herbs - tansy, chamomile, wormwood - to the fire.

Swarms of midges will also be abandoned if you find and then burn an old tinder fungus, having first strung it on a rod. It is recommended to stick such a smoke bomb into the ground at a distance of 4-5 meters from the resting place.

Last year's dry cattail will do the same task perfectly. The smoke from the smoldering heads of pseudo-reeds perfectly protects against small midges.

Use fresh pine needles and cones

Gatherings in nature will be much calmer and more comfortable if you boil a samovar using pine and fir cones. You can also add dried juniper needles to the fire.

Stay close to people who smoke

Tobacco smoke repels midges, which means that the person who smokes and the people around him can protect himself from blood-sucking insects.

As it turns out, you can save yourself from harmful midges not only with the help of industrial preparations and products. And among folk methods there are very effective measures that have a minimum of contraindications.

Can flies bite

Not all varieties of flies are capable of causing physical harm to people. An ordinary indoor insect is relatively harmless, except for the spoilage of food and the annoying buzzing that gets on your nerves. A biting fly behaves completely differently. Despite the external similarity with indoor insects, it has completely different habits and food priorities. Among the main predators that attack people in Russia, the following are common:

A very dangerous biting fly, the tsetse fly, lives in Central Africa. She feeds on the blood of people and animals. The insect is a carrier of a dangerous sleeping sickness, which is practically untreatable and leads to death.

The debate about whether flies bite or not can go on forever. Since not everyone knows that the culprits of human suffering are only certain types of insects that fly around the house. The answer to the question is clear - they bite in order to drink blood.

The term “housefly” can be used to identify those dipterans that live in close proximity to humans. They are constant “neighbors” throughout the summer. House flies do not bite people, since their mouthparts are soft enough and cannot pierce the skin of a person or animal. It is intended for the consumption of liquid and soft foods such as juices, fibers of vegetables and fruits, and rotting organic matter.

In the order Diptera there are individuals that have a completely different proboscis structure. The piercing-sucking proboscis is designed to saturate the fly with the blood of animals or humans. There are several reasons that explain why flies bite as autumn approaches. These include the following factors:

• a sharp increase in insect population size;
• increased need for food before the onset of cold weather;
• increasing competition between predators for food;
• lower ambient temperatures force flies to move closer to human habitation at the end of summer.

All this perfectly explains the aggressiveness of insects that appear in the house and bite painfully in August and other autumn months.

Damage caused by the green fly

However, the harm caused by the green fly is also obvious. Constantly living among rotting remains, in cesspools, it becomes a carrier of pathogenic bacteria. Flies are carriers of diseases such as:

• dysentery;
• typhus;
• polio;
• brucellosis;
• intestinal myiasis;
• helminthiasis and so on.

For these insects, it doesn’t really matter how fresh the meat is in which it lays its eggs. For this, either a half-decomposed animal corpse or a fresh piece of meat on your dinner table will do. During heat treatment, the eggs will certainly die, but, you see, this is little consolation. In addition, many housewives test raw minced meat for salt, risking introducing into their body all kinds of bacteria and green fly eggs, some species of which can take root in the intestines, causing intestinal myiasis.

Those involved in raising livestock know of cases where a seemingly small wound received by an animal through negligence turned into a big problem. It did not heal for a long time, the animal began to get sick and sometimes even died. The culprit is a green fly that laid eggs there. The larvae that hatched from the eggs turned the wound into a digestible compote, thereby worsening the animal’s condition.

There is a known case when a green fly laid eggs in the eyes and nose of a patient at a Canadian clinic. One hundred and twenty larvae hatched from them. At the time of discovery, each larva had already reached a size of approximately 5 millimeters. This suggests that after the eggs of the green fly were laid, about one and a half to two days passed. Upon admission to the clinic, no larvae were noticed in the woman’s body, which means infection directly in the institution. However, the doctors denied all responsibility for the incident, citing the fact that there were no windows in the woman’s room, and there was no way a fly could have entered the clinic.

How to distinguish fruit flies from other midges?

People often do not know how to distinguish fruit midges from sewer midges, biting forest midges, “fungus gnats” and other insects. Some even believe that these are all the same creatures. In fact, there is a difference. It lies in the degree of danger of insects, their habitats, the rate of reproduction, as well as the “favorite dishes” of these creatures:

1. If flies are coming out of your kitchen or bathroom sink, they are sewer flies (flies). They appear “fluffy” due to the dark hairs with which their bodies and wings are densely covered. For details on getting rid of these flies, read the material “How to destroy sewer flies: 6 best remedies.”
2. If you notice that small flies are swarming in your indoor flowers, and the plants themselves have begun to wither, fungus gnats are to blame! They need to be destroyed as soon as possible - find out why and how to do it correctly in our instructions “How to get rid of fungus gnats in 5 steps”.
3. If some insects fly out of your wardrobe or kitchen cabinets, unfortunately, these are clothes moths or food moths. These pests can cause much more damage than a spoiled mood. We have already encountered this problem and have discussed in detail the best methods and means of getting rid of moths.
4. Some annoying midges try to get into your eyes or have already bitten you at home - and was it painful? If these are not mosquitoes, and there is a body of water near your house, then these are probably isolated midges that flew into your house from the street, and there is nothing to be afraid of. But if they continue to attack your home, then it’s time for an intensified fight - choose the best means in our review “How to get rid of midges: the best traps, sprays and other means”
5. If flies have settled and reproduced on spoiled fruits and vegetables, or fly over fermented alcohol or sweets, then these are precisely fruit flies - fruit flies, also otherwise called fruit flies. We will tell you in detail about getting rid of them in this material.

The fruit midge is one of the most harmless creatures on this list. It is classified as an insect that is not dangerous to humans. It's just that she multiplies too quickly. And also, it gradually spoils fruit plants and homemade food supplies... So we still won’t be “friends” with her. We will fight and for this we will get to know the “fruit tree” better.

So, by “fruit flies” we mean dozens of species of insects that have similar qualities. This is a small midge, the size of an individual is from 1 to 3 mm. It can be recognized by its oval, bulbous body and slow, “drunk” flight. There are many species of fruit flies, ranging in size from one to two millimeters. The color of their “carcasses” can be different: most often they are dark yellow and brown shades. Black and orange midges are a little less common. They have 2 symmetrical neat wings and 6-8 legs.

Drosophila fruit flies lay their larvae only on the feeding surface. Most often these are sweet foods such as fruits, vegetables, and aromatic cheeses. Most of all they “value” the fruits of citrus plants. Scientists have recently found out that their eggs there are not touched by the main fly destroyers - wasps. The larvae “travel” through the “delicious house” and turn into adults in 10 days. Before this, they are practically invisible to humans: eggs and larvae quickly disguise themselves as the color of the fruit. And only at the very beginning, whitish “seeds” 0.5 millimeters in size can be seen with the naked eye. By the way, due to inconspicuousness, people more often bring spoiled nursery fruits to their apartment directly from the store. And only then do fruit flies appear in their home. They appear and begin to annoy you.

Types and characteristics of flies

There are two types of midges: fruit flies and sciarids. The former reproduce in fruits (fruits, berries, vegetables), the latter - in the soil. Sciarides also appear in apartments when there are indoor plants. The insect feels comfortable: it can feed in the kitchen, and constant watering of home flowers provides the necessary moisture.

Before getting rid of midges in the house, their type is determined, because... methods of struggle are different. Fruit insects are eliminated by throwing out rotten fruits and taking out garbage. You can't do this with sciarids. You will have to work with the soil of the plants to influence them.

Drosophila fly

Danger to humans

Apartment midges do not pose a direct danger to humans. They don't bite, so they don't spread diseases or other infections. But since there are many ways to get rid of flies (chemicals and folk remedies), there is some danger:

1. Damage to products. If a midge gets to fresh food, it destroys its integrity. Subsequently, it may become completely unusable.
2. Destruction of stocks. Many people store onions, potatoes and other vegetables in bags for the winter. The appearance of harmful insects can damage some of the stocks, as well as destroy them completely.
3. Annoyance. Besides the fact that insects constantly fly into your eyes, nose and mouth, they stain white tablecloths, curtains and towels.
4. Damage to house plants.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the midge nest is difficult to find. And it reproduces very quickly (20 larvae at a time, the ability to reproduce begins 8 hours after birth).

What harm do small insects cause to plants and people?

Midges do not pose a threat to humans: they do not bite and do not carry viruses and infections that are dangerous to health. They are only interested in plants and ignore the human body. But the sight of flickering insects often causes irritation. Flowers do not suffer immediately, because a small number of insects are not able to destroy them. The threat is posed by larvae that spread at high speed and feed on roots. And for reproduction you need waterlogged soil.

Symptoms of indoor plant infection

A swarm of midges over flowers is hard to miss. But if there are only a few insects, then the pests are not always detected immediately. Carefully examine the diseased flower before treating it. There are several signs of a pest attack:

1. Drooping leaves. Shake the plant: if there are midges, they will fly out of the shelter and become noticeable.
2. Whitish spots. This is how the whitefly leaves signs of vital activity.
3. Small white larvae or a collection of adults on the inside of leaves.

If no obvious pests are visible, flood the plant with plenty of water. The volume of liquid in the pot should exceed the amount of soil by 1–1.5 cm. This is done so that the eggs and young larvae that live in the upper part of the soil float above the ground. After such an experiment, excess water is poured out.

Midges in the bathroom: how to get rid of them

The bathroom in the house is a place where insects like to gather. This is due to a number of factors, such as high humidity, the possibility of penetration through sewers, and the presence of damp, unwashed rags.

In addition, if general cleaning is not done on time, the bathroom can turn into a kind of incubator for midges. Therefore, you need to regularly clean the sewer, using special means, such as “mole”. This product is sold at any hardware store. How to use it is written in the instructions. It should be remembered that this remedy, under certain conditions, can harm a person. Usually the product is poured into the sink or poured, after which a glass of hot water is poured. After some time specified in the instructions, the product is completely washed off with warm water.

If there is high humidity in the bathroom, then you should pay attention to the operation of the ventilation system. Quite often, such systems simply do not exist.

This applies to the private sector, but in apartments they can simply be packed, even from the time of construction.

Do not leave wet, unwashed rags in the bathroom. In addition to the fact that they emit an unpleasant odor, they attract midges in clouds. This is especially true in summer, when moisture and elevated temperatures create favorable conditions for the reproduction of midges.

The easiest way to get rid of midges at home | Life hacker

Watch this video on YouTube

Prevention

Of course, it is always easier to prevent a problem than to fix it. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain basic sanitary and hygienic conditions:

• dispose of household waste in the house in a timely manner;
• do not leave uncovered food on the table;
• place a mosquito net on the windows;
• Clean pet pens regularly;
• examine animals for wounds to avoid infection with green fly larvae;
• treat manure heaps with biothermal agents;
• promptly dispose of the corpses of dead animals, as well as pests such as rats, moles and others;
• Disinfect latrines with insecticides.

Tansy essential oil repels flies, causing paralysis of their limbs. Bouquets of these flowers, hung in a livestock room or standing in a vase in an apartment, will help get rid of annoying flies for a long time.

Recipes for folk remedies for insects

How to get rid of midges in an apartment using folk remedies:

• Fill a glass cup or jar with water, add some apple cider vinegar and dish detergent. Place the vessel where insects accumulate, and after a couple of hours there will be practically no midges. The apple cider vinegar trap is very attractive to house midges, and the dish soap prevents them from getting out. For the product to be effective, update it every week.
• It is possible to remove jumping midges that bite painfully with the help of horseradish roots. Place pieces of horseradish or its peeling in a simple transparent bag, leave the bag open - flies cannot stand this smell, so they quickly leave the apartment.
• Midges and similar insects are very fond of rotten bananas. Leave a bag of banana peels or pieces of other spoiled fruit or vegetables in the kitchen - this way you will collect parasites in one place. Carefully and quickly close the bag and throw it in the trash.
• A plastic cup with sweet contents will be an equally effective trap for small insects. Place pieces of fruit on its bottom or pour in juice or compote, stretch cling film on top and make tiny holes in it using a thick needle. Place the glass closer to the midges' habitat - they will begin to fly in, but will no longer be able to get out.
• If you don’t want to build a special trap for midges, use improvised means. Pour some wine or beer into the cake lid (the drink should only slightly cover the bottom of the container). As a rule, insects quickly flock to alcohol and drown in it.
• Leave some compote, juice or sweet tea in the jar; this will attract a large number of insects overnight. Close the jar with a lid and microwave for 40-60 seconds. In addition, you can put the jar in the refrigerator for a couple of hours - the midges will not survive this.

Reproduction

The green fly lays about 150 eggs at a time, but in a day their number can reach five hundred. To protect the offspring from bright sunlight, to which they are very sensitive, the female looks for deep folds or holes in the flesh of the carrion, and, if possible, climbs under the corpse to lay eggs.

The insect is not at all concerned about other scavengers, such as ants, which carry freshly laid fly eggs. Her offspring are so numerous that such petty theft will not affect the general population.

How to prevent midges from appearing in flower pots?

Simple prevention methods will help prevent the appearance of soil pests. To avoid having to get rid of them, you need to:

• Maintain cleanliness. Immediately remove wilted and fallen flowers and leaves, preventing them from rotting.
• Water the soil moderately, avoiding the appearance of dampness.
• When planting or replanting, choose soil from a trusted manufacturer. The soil can also be treated with steam or kept in the cold for a short time (in the freezer). If the pot is not new, it is treated with boiling water or a solution of potassium permanganate.
• Loosen the soil regularly. This way it will dry out faster.

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How to get rid of house flies in the bathroom?

Also, one of the places where unexpected guests attract is the bathroom. If you do not monitor cleanliness and do not clean regularly, a large swarm of midges may appear. Breeding sites can be:

• Wet rags, napkins, mop.
• Damp dirty laundry.
• High humidity.
• Hood
• Sewer pipes

For prevention, you need to perform simple manipulations:

Monitor air humidity

Be sure to wash and dry all rags and clothes

It is also important to clean the pipes in your sink and bathroom regularly. Many different special products are sold in stores for this procedure.

They are available in both granules and liquid form. Each product comes with its own instructions. Liquid products and gels are poured into pipes, and granules are poured into them. For the granular powder to start working, you need to pour a little boiling water over it. Then the product is left for some time. Afterwards everything is washed off with water. If there is high air humidity in the bathroom, you need to monitor the ventilation system. If there is a hood, it must be cleaned. Also keep the door to the room open more often.

Where do midges come from in an apartment or private house?

The most common uninvited inhabitants of windowsills are fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), grass flies (Chloropidae) and leaf gnats, also known as sciarids (Sciaridae).

All these insects are practically harmless to humans. Cereal flies and sciarids live in the soil of plants and feed on decaying shoots. They enter the house along with the contaminated soil, after which they pupate and hatch. They can reproduce even in winter, because the apartment is warm, calm and there are no predators.

With fruit flies it is a little more complicated - they can cause intestinal diseases. Where do they come from? Fruit flies lay eggs on the skins of rotten fruits and vegetables. A day later, the larvae hatch, and five days later the adults appear. Drosophila eggs can get into the esophagus just by biting off a piece of a poorly washed apple. Usually this does not lead to dangerous consequences: gastric juice simply dissolves the insect without a trace. However, people with a low acidic environment may experience intestinal myiases.

Another unpleasant aspect: fruit flies really like human food. Moreover, they do not see the difference between a trash can and your plate - which means they are able to carry the eggs of other, less harmless insects on their paws.

Larvae

The larvae of green flies hatch from eggs a day after laying. They are small in size, whitish with a small black head, which has a mouth opening and two sharp hook-shaped protrusions, which the larva controls: it pulls forward, sticks into rotting flesh, and hides. Some sources suggest that these are modified jaws of the larva, with the help of which it captures microscopic pieces of flesh. Actually this is not true. The larva uses its hooks exclusively as a propulsion system. By thrusting them into the flesh, it tightens the body, so it is able to move.