Flies in the attic.

[AndrewB]

Been up in my attic preparing for getting reslated. Trying to remove some of the lime torching by hand before it falls into my nice new rockwool. Covering the harder to reach parts best I can in tarps.

Anyway. I've seen a dozen or so of these guys. Would they give you any concern?

Seems to be the only life up here... Except me..
Although that's starting to come into question.

 

[elizabeth]

No harm at all. I think they are seeking refuge from the winter. You would probably notice a smell if they were there for another reason.

 

[housewinnie]

Look to me like cluster flies. They come to our loft every autumn. Are you high on a hill as they tend to love the highest spots. Harmless more of a nuisance.

 

[AndrewB]

Ah that's good.

Always have the fear. Your responses could easily have been; that's a woodworm larve you need to demolish the whole house

 

[johnbanshee]

I seem to have loads of flies in just two rooms - can't work out where they are coming from...I've got all the ceilings down, removed all insulation etc - there seems to be no where for them to hide, yet every time I go and work on the house a couple of dozen seem to congregate on the window, though strangely lots end up on their back and crawling or dead. There are no bad smells - where could they be coming from this time of year???

 

[tobydog]

We've had cluster flies in a sealed up brand new house and now we have some in our 400 year old house. They will get in somewhere. As some have said, they seek refuge in the autumn for the winter and normally mind their own business. Unless you go into the loft regularly you may not even know they're there. I think they are probably drawn into your rooms by light through loft hatch gaps and other tiny spaces. In the spring they will disappear into the garden to feed on composted vegetation. Hence they are harmless even if a bit annoying. At the moment we currently have more ladybirds waking up in the house than cluster flies so I'm busy catching those. I release them where they can crawl behind the weatherboarding.

 

[housewinnie]

We have ladybirds too. The weird thing I find with clusters is that they like to play dead on there backs then get up and fly off.

 

[Gothichome]

We too get outbreaks of both flies and ladybugs during the winter months. Usually on sunny days when the sun shines in the windows. I suspect the small rise in temperature is enough to trigger reanimation. I have also found, in the rooms were I haven’t restored the windows is more prone to the outbreak, I think the bugs hide in the weigh pockets of our windows. when I restore my windows I suck out the pockets and thus have no bug issues in those rooms.
Ron

 

[fernicarry]

A butterfly appeared in my kitchen a few days back. We have -2 forecast so not a good time for a butterfly to be awake.

 

[tobydog]

We had a lovely male brimstone butterfly in the garden at the weekend. Very fetching limey yellow colour. Apparently they are one of the first butterflies to appear each year but early February is pushing it a bit.

 

[philpjuk100]

Yes, we have cluster flies and ladybirds in our attic, cluster flies in the autumn, and ladybirds in the spring, they all seem to die after a few weeks and I keep a "Henry" vac up there to deal with them.