Cluster Flies

[keegs]

Our place in Maine gets invaded by hoards of these cluster flies that look much like common house flies but arrive in the many thousands. They seem to show up around the change of seasons (spring and fall). From out doors you can see them gather on the side of the house that's receiving the most sun and follow the sun around the house as the day passes.

They get indoors by the hundreds and maybe thousands as well and are an awful nuisance. I'm still working on the house (new construction) and the walls are open. They seem to be getting in through the attic space. They appear there in the morning and by late morning they're all over the house.

The soffits are vented but I don't think the vent holes are large enough for them to be getting in through there. There's a ridge vent but there's a foam gasket between the cap and the roofing.

But the metal roofing has ribs that form a open channel from the rake to the ridge. I'm wondering if the buggers are roosting in these ribs (channels) at night and when it warms up they start moving around and head in doors. I asked the roofing material manufacturer and got a big shrug.

I'm thinking of plugging the ribs at the rake end with some foam to test my theory.

Has anyone ever had this problem? If so, what have you done to remedy it?

 

[jonyyuma]

I can trade you a few thousand mosquitos to eat the flies. We have been covered up here since the river just went to below flood stage. There are so many you can here their wings on the porch.

 

[keegs]

I can trade you a few thousand mosquitos to eat the flies. We have been covered up here since the river just went to below flood stage. There are so many you can here their wings on the porch.

dang...fly eating mosquitoes

 

[tawilson]

I think they come out of the ground. I have a backpack sprayer and I've had some luck with spraying the house with that. I researched this a few years ago and I believe there are insectisides that you can mix with paint.

 

[EE_Bota]

I haven't seen your ridge vents, so they may be different than mine, but here goes anyway:

You mentioned that they are gasketed to the roof. But what filters the air stream?

My ridge vents had a thin layer of that fiberglass filter material that would normally be used in inexpensive forced air filters. For some reason, the poor roofers didn't keep that filtration in place in all cases, so he had to redo them.

Ridge Vent, Ridge Vent Installation, Rigid Vent Plus :: Trimline Building Products

The above is a different brand than mine, but you see the filter material to keep the bugs out. Double-check yours everywhere, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Mounted Madness]

We're suffering the same problem right across Canada right now.

With a Federal Election under way up here, the Cluster Flies have left there usual Cluster grounds and have dispersed across the country, in hopes of ensuring that the DNA for their individual Cluster will be enhanced and grow.

We have had 3 or maybe it's 8 of these Cluster dispersals in the last 10 years and it is becoming annoying. We think it may have something to do with Climate Change, but we can't be sure.

It's expected that the Cluster Flies will disperse across the United States in early 2012, with some predictions that the dispersal has already begun.

No wonder the Cluster Flies outlawed DDT. :laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[keegs]

I haven't seen your ridge vents, so they may be different than mine, but here goes anyway:

You mentioned that they are gasketed to the roof. But what filters the air stream?

My ridge vents had a thin layer of that fiberglass filter material that would normally be used in inexpensive forced air filters. For some reason, the poor roofers didn't keep that filtration in place in all cases, so he had to redo them.

Ridge Vent, Ridge Vent Installation, Rigid Vent Plus :: Trimline Building Products

The above is a different brand than mine, but you see the filter material to keep the bugs out. Double-check yours everywhere, just to be on the safe side.

I probably used the wrong term "gasketed" to describe the material between the ridge cap and the roofing material.

The ridge vent cap runs the entire length of the ridge. Between the ridge cap and the roofing material is a 1" think x 10 wide " strip of nylon insulation (a material similar to what you'd see on a floor buffer) running the length of the ridge.

As you would normally do in this situation, the plywood sheathing is cut away about 4 " or so either side of the ridge peak for air flow. The cut away begins about 18"" or so in from the gable. The rib forming channels http://www.metalroofingsource.com/images/grandrib3-profile.jpg
run from the rake to the ridge peak and at the ridge, terminate at the point where the sheathing has been cut away leaving an open channel from the rake into the attic space. While standing in the attic I can stick my finger into this channel.