Is this happening in your house? Tiny insects, looking something like dark dust motes, are circling around a kitchen or bathroom drain or a shower/bathtub drain. It’s not a pleasant sight, and even worse it’s not a pleasant idea that there is a source for the breeding of flies inside your home. Although these “drain flies” (moth flies) are harmless for people, you still don’t want them in your house, and you want to eliminate the source. In many cases, this jog requires a plumber in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA to help.
Checking Where the Flies Are Coming From
When you notice flies around a sink or drain, you take a few steps to check that the problem is coming from the drains. (There are also cases where the flies can breed in cracks under slab floors where pipes are leaking. This absolutely requires a professional plumber to fix.) Take a knife and scrape around the top area of the drain to see if there’s a sludge layer. If there is, look to see if there is larva inside the sludge—this humid, organic build-up is a perfect breeding ground for moth flies.
Another test you can do is to place tape over the drain cover, then use a pin to put a few holes in it for airflow. You can later remove the tape to see if flies are stuck on it, which will tell you if the drain is the source of the flies.
If you can’t find a drain source for the flies, please call a plumber to track down where they’re breeding.
Getting Rid of Drain Flies
So you have determined which drain the flies are coming from. There are a few steps you can take to eliminate them that won’t harm the drains or you. Do not use standard drain cleaners, which don’t do much good against drain flies and can damage the pipes. Do not pour pesticides of any type down the drain, as this can be harmful for your household!
What you can do is pour a pot of boiling water down the drain one or two times a week. You can also try a mixture of water, vinegar, and baking soda. Let this mixture sit down in the drain overnight, then pour boiling water down after it.
If you aren’t successful with these methods, professional plumbers can help. They can provide a powerful cleaning to remove debris fully from the drain, and they also have special bio-cleaning material that naturally gets rid of organic waste without harming the pipes or leaving toxins.
Keeping Flies From Coming Back
This is the important part, because fast solutions like pouring hot water down the drainpipe may not lead to a long-term solution. The flies could be back in a matter of weeks. The best way to keep drain flies away—as well as numerous other drain problems—is to schedule routine drain cleaning with professional plumbers. Annual drain cleaning scours the pipes and removes all build-up. This doesn’t give drain flies a place to lay eggs, and it also lowers the chance of clogs or unhygienic conditions in the house.
Saddleback Plumbing has proudly served Orange County since 1981. Schedule drain cleaning and other plumbing repairs.