As the cleanup process is still ongoing after hurricane Ian, you might be finding little black bugs flying in and around your home, flying around your head and even up your nose! No, these are not drain flies or even fruit flies. They are called fungus gnats. You can tell the difference between these 3 by a few telltale traits.
Fungus gnats: Generally inside your home, if you see little black bugs flying around your house plants, they can also congregate around your sink drains in your kitchen or bathroom (They come in your home when doors or windows are opened or damaged screen enclosures from the hurricane).
Fruit flies: Fruit flies are mainly found in the kitchen around a bowl of fruit or in and/or around the garbage can.
Drain flies: really don’t need much explanation, they can always be found around, well… you guessed it, your drains in both your kitchen and bathrooms.
I have been speaking a lot about Hurricane Ian in my blogs because it just happened, and we are still feeling the effects of it long after its landfall. The cleanup process has been ongoing since the day after the hurricane hit our area. The storm was much bigger than anyone anticipated and caused far more damage than first estimated. This means that we still have unsightly piles of debris everywhere!
Why is this important? What does this have to do with fungus gnats?
I can explain… We have been getting an abundance of calls from our customers complaining about little black bugs in their homes, mainly flying around their drains. Of course, we jumped to conclusions and at first, started trying to treat them as if they were drain flies. But after getting calls from customers for call-back services because they were still seeing the bugs, we did some investigating and extensive research and came to the realization that they were, in fact, fungus gnats.
Fungus gnats feed on moist, decaying, organic material such as dead leaves, leaf husks, and fungus. They are also attracted to the soil that contains things like wood chips, peat moss, or compost. Water-soaked lawns, discarded carpeting, padded furniture, insulation, and clothing become moldy as they are put out in discarded waste and debris piles after cleaning up from the hurricane and all of that serves as breeding grounds for fungus gnats.
Unfortunately, there really is not much you can do in way of treating these pesky annoying little bugs. I can give you a few little pointers that can help keep them from driving you completely insane! They are attracted to the yellow sticky “fly strips”. A lot of people don’t want to deal with them because they are just so unsightly and often you run into them and end up slapping yourself in the face with it, or it gets stuck in your air (and that just becomes more of a mess!) or you can give our office a call at 239-985-9202 and speak to one of our representatives about L.E.D bug lights that are a continuous effort for controlling these annoying little flies!
So, in conclusion, there is not much you can do chemically to get rid of these pests. However, feel free to contact our office at 239-985-9202 for any questions regarding fungus gnats or any other pest control problems or concerns in your Cape Coral and Fort Myers area homes.