A type of flying insect, blowflies have distinctive large eyes, a set of wings, and grow between 8-10 mm long. They are easily distinguished by their shiny, metallic appearance, and range in colour from green, black, blue or copper. You may even recognise their loud, unique buzzing.

Blowflies play an important role in breaking down organic matter. With an appetite for decaying, rotten protein, they thrive in areas such as meat-processing facilities, slaughterhouses, garbage dumps and recycling plants. In fact, they can detect odours from up to 19km away.

Blowflies prefer to live in warmer climates with higher humidity, and lay their eggs in decomposing organic waste, such as rubbish, compost piles, plant matter and manure.

Although it can be hard to avoid pesky flies during outdoor dining situations, it’s important to discourage them from hanging around your property as much as possible and prevent them from settling into breeding sites. Here’s how:

Keep waste secured

Ensure that all rubbish, especially decaying food scraps, is stored in tightly sealed bags and bins with well-fitting lids. Regularly dispose of rubbish to avoid overflowing bins.

Entry point exclusion

Identify and remove all entry points for blowflies to enter your home. You can install fly screens over windows and doors.

Remove food sources

Blowflies are attracted to rotten food smells, which can be carried by air currents far away from your property. Avoid leaving pet bowls outside if possible.

Remove water sources

Fix leaking taps, drains and pipes.

Keep your home clean

Remove food spills, debris and grease as quickly as possible and make sure that food preparation and dining areas are clean. This includes wiping down benches, tables, sinks and stoves, washing dishes and cutlery, as well as sweeping, vacuuming and mopping floors. Pay attention to maintaining waste storage areas and your pet’s favourite spaces. Remove dead wildlife such as birds and rodents, which are prime blowfly breeding sites.

At Allstate, our technicians are highly trained to be familiar with food standard HACCP. This means that we understand how important it is to stay compliant with government regulations to keep your business open. With the constant threat of pests such as blowflies having a negative impact on day-to-day operations, we make monitoring pests simple.

Our routine pest management program doesn’t just include pest control services delivered at regular intervals according to your business’ risk level. You’re given access to an innovative 24/7 personalised online reporting portal, which contains all relevant compliance documents, service reports and allows fast and direct communication to a dedicated pest control technician that is familiar with your business.

Reach out to Allstate today to learn more about how we can help protect your business from pests all year long.

Types of Flies

There are many species of flies present in Australia, with varying feeding habits, life cycles and seasonal activity. By determining which species of fly is responsible for an outbreak, this can assist with developing an effective, targeted treatment plan. These are the more common species you’re most likely to encounter:

House fly

• Lays 120-130 eggs a time, can take up to 42 days to mature into an adult fly
• Attracted to food smells
• Deposits eggs onto decaying material such as garbage, animal waste, sewage, organic plant matter such as compost
• Rests on walls, floors, ceilings, the ground, plants, fences, compost heaps and rubbish bins

Bush fly

• Drawn to large animals, particularly proteins in bodily fluids such as saliva, sweat and tears and animal waste
• Known to transmit eye infections to humans and livestock

Fruit fly

• Attracted to fermenting sugary liquids in waste bins, fruit and vegetables, drains, spills and cracks in floors/other surfaces
• Commonly found in hospitality settings such as bars, pubs, breweries, vineyards, kitchens, restaurants, fruit and vegetable plants

Drain Fly

• Favours rotting food and other organic waste material that builds up in drains, septic tanks and compost
• Largely resistant a lot of pest control chemicals and cleaning agents

Blowfly

• Attracted to and deposits eggs in rotting meat, particularly dead animals such as rodents and birds, as well as food waste from hospitality venues, and occasionally cheese

Cluster fly

• Usually found in quieter, less frequented areas such as attics and wall voids
• Seeks warm places to hibernate in winter

Fermentation fly

• Attracted to fermenting bacteria and yeast in rotten fruits and vegetables, as well as alcohol
• Found in breweries and pubs

Flesh fly

• Attracted to decaying food, garbage and animal waste

Professional fly prevention

In business settings, we recommend you don’t take any chances with flies because an outbreak can happen quickly. Allstate’s highly trained technicians are familiar with food standard HACCP, so we can provide professional fly control solutions for your business to ensure that you stay compliant with health and safety regulations. Our fly removal service involves 4 steps:

Inspection

Our fly prevention team will come over to perform a visual assessment of the outbreak to determine the best treatment plan.

Identifying and removing fly attractants 

We’ll help you to remove potential food sources and breeding sites for flies to see if this fixes the problem. If needed, we’ll also make recommendations for waste management and maintaining good hygiene practices. 

Applying fly treatment

For severe outbreaks, our treatments can be applied out of business hours to minimise disruption. We only use AVMPA approved chemicals, which are safe for the environment, children and pets.

Treatment may include using a combination of sprays, aerosols, fogs, dusting powders and baits.

For reliable, long-term fly control at commercial and industrial facilities with food handling, we highly recommend installing a fly killer unit.

Follow-up treatment

Flies are a constant threat to many food handling businesses and require ongoing monitoring and additional treatment if necessary. 

Reporting back to you

We’ll send you a document with important information about your fly outbreak and treatment that you can keep as part of your workplace health and safety management plan. This report is easily accessible for you and your employees for future reference.