House Fly — Identification & Control
Musca domestica
About the house fly
The common house fly is the everyday grey fly most people picture when they think "fly" — roughly a quarter inch long, with four distinct dark stripes running down the thorax and a pair of prominent red eyes. House flies feed by regurgitating saliva onto solid food to liquefy it before consuming it, a habit that makes them unusually effective at mechanically transferring pathogens: salmonella, E. coli, and the bacteria behind dysentery have all been documented being carried by house flies moving between garbage, manure, and food surfaces.
House flies breed remarkably fast — a female can lay several hundred eggs across her lifespan, and a full life cycle from egg to adult can complete in under two weeks in warm weather. That speed is exactly why an ignored problem escalates quickly: what looks like one or two nuisance flies today can become a genuine infestation within a couple of weeks if a breeding source (garbage, pet waste, decaying organic matter) is left unaddressed nearby.
Quick ID
6–7 mm grey body with four dark thorax stripes, red eyes, single pair of wings.
In the Triangle
Year-round across the Triangle; peak in summer.
Think you have house flys?
Free inspection from a licensed Castle Exterminators technician — Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Cary & the Triangle. We'll confirm the species and recommend a treatment plan.
Request Free Inspection (919) 606-8686
