“We found these worms in one of our toilets after returning thirteen days later”, writes Jerry in his submission regarding the many, tiny, black, worm-like creatures pictured below. “No one used this toilet while we were gone. This toilet is on the second floor.” Considering the worms’ appearance and the context in which Jerry found them, we think he has found drain fly larvae. Also known as moth flies due to their stout, furry bodies which resemble moths more than the common house fly, drain flies are notorious bathroom pests. They are not pests so far as doing any real damage to the items in one’s home, but infestations of them can be hard to tackle and the flies can thereby become a real nuisance.

It makes sense that Jerry found these in his toilet. Drain flies and their larvae feed on the organic growths which form on decaying organic materials, like fungi, bacteria, and algae. Stagnant water is the ideal environment for these growths to occur, hence why you see so much fungi and algae around ponds and lakes. If a bathroom is not used for a long period of time, then the water will become stagnant, and consequently such growths will occur. If no one is around to use the bathroom, or even just run the taps and flush the toilet every so often to prevent stagnant water, then there is not much one can do to prevent these invasions. But while one is home, there are methods one can use to eliminate the infestation and prevent future ones.

The trick to eliminating infestations is to remove live larvae and install preventative measures. What Jerry absolutely should not do is just flush the worms down the toilet. They can easily just resurface. We recommend fishing them out of the toilet and moving them outside. After that, we recommend deep cleaning the bathroom and ensuring that preventative measures are being put in place. This means regularly cleaning the bathroom, taking special care to scrub the inside of the drains to destroy the organic film on which the flies lay their eggs. It also means sanitizing surfaces and drains, to prevent the build-up of organic materials that will decay, as well as making sure that taps are run and toilets are flushed in bathrooms which may not get used as often (for example, guest bathrooms). As long as one does these things regularly, drain flies should have no reason to infest a bathroom, as there will be no food for them or their larvae.

To conclude, Jerry found a whole bunch of drain fly larvae in his toilet. Not to panic though, it seems that the infestation is at least concentrated in one spot: the toilet. So, Jerry knows the first thing he needs to clean is that toilet. We hope this helps, and we wish Jerry the very best.

Summary

Article Name

Toilet Full of Drain Fly Larvae After Weeks Away From Home

Description

"We found these worms in one of our toilets after returning thirteen days later", writes Jerry in his submission regarding the many, tiny, black, worm-like creatures pictured below. "No one used this toilet while we were gone. This toilet is on the second floor." Considering the worms' appearance and the context in which Jerry found them, we think he has found drain fly larvae. Also known as moth flies due to their stout, furry bodies which resemble moths more than the common house fly, drain flies are notorious bathroom pests. They are not pests so far as doing any real damage to the items in one's home, but infestations of them can be hard to tackle and the flies can thereby become a real nuisance.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton