Cottage Bugs by Cottage Life

Author:Cottage Life [Cottage Life]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780988066670
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2012-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

Flies

In spring, we get a lot of flies in our new outhouse. They congregate around the windows, particularly between the glass and the screen. What are they? Can we do anything about them?

—Wilf Findlay, Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

Without seeing a specimen, it’s hard to know for sure what variety of fly you have. But our experts think they’re either cluster flies or filth flies.

Cluster flies, explains Bob Anderson, a research scientist in entomology at the Canadian Museum of Nature, get into buildings in the fall, seeking warmth, through small cracks and crevices. They winter indoors, emerge inside in spring, and buzz around the windows trying to get out. “They aren’t the brightest creatures on the planet—their brains are the size of a single cell,” says Anderson. Eventually, they’ll leave or die trying, but not before thoroughly annoying you with all that clustering. Because cluster flies can squeeze through the tiniest of openings, preventing them from getting inside structures is tough, but certainly worth a try. Seal any holes and cracks—especially around the windows—with caulk in the summer. Since you would never want to completely cut the airflow to your outhouse—blech—Anderson suggests covering the vents in your privy with standard window screening. Make sure it’s snugly fastened.

Another likely scenario is that your outhouse intruders are filth flies, says Doug Currie, an entomologist at the Royal Ontario Museum. Filth flies vary in appearance—the term covers a wide variety of flies—but they’re all about housefly-sized, and they all hang around garbage, manure, and dead things. You don’t want to get rid of these guys, Currie says, because they help to break down fecal matter, and, in the outhouse, that’s good. His advice? Try to live with them. —June 2009

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