Yes, That Fly Did Come Up Your Drain | Deep Look
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- Опубликовано: 15 янв 2024
- Ever wonder how those tiny, jumpy flies got onto your bathroom wall? Well, they came out of your sink drain after growing up down in the pipes. A goofy, long “mustache,” fuzzy wings and some aquabatics help them survive in that soggy environment.
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Drain flies are also known as moth flies because they look like miniature moths. One of the most common species of drain fly is Clogmia albipunctata, which has white markings on its dark legs. This is the species we filmed for our video.
Drain flies sneak in from the outside, often through cracks in old pipes. They lay their eggs in the slime inside the pipes. When larvae hatch out of the eggs, they feed on this living slime, which is called a biofilm. It’s made up of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms that grow on the hair, saliva and bits of food that get washed down a bathroom sink.
---Why do drain flies show up in a house?
Entomologist Greg Curler, who studies drain flies, said they crawl into old buildings through pipes that rusted through, or cracked as the ground shifted. The flies use their antennae to sense the gases coming off the biofilm that has accumulated over time inside the pipes.
“The flies can detect the gas from a very long way,” said Curler, “and are attracted to it.”
---Do drain flies spread bacteria?
Even though they grow up as bacteria-eating larvae down in the pipes below your sink or toilet, the drain flies in your bathroom don’t spread bacteria around. That’s because they’re unlikely to land on you or your toothbrush or food. They’re not looking to eat your food or lay their eggs in it, the way that houseflies and blowflies do. Adult drain flies don’t really eat - they only drink a bit of liquid. And they pretty much stay put. They only fly afar when they need to find a new pipe to lay their eggs in.
---How do you get rid of drain flies?
Drain cleaner might get rid of drain flies temporarily. But the biofilm that attracts drain flies to the inside of pipes is hard to wash away, said Matthew Fields, who studies biofilms at Montana State University.
The microbes in the biofilm produce a sticky slime of proteins and carbohydrates that surrounds and protects them.
“Scrubbing the biofilm is the best way to get rid of it,” said Fields.
Since the insides of pipes where drain flies reproduce are typically out of reach for a good scrub, some biofilm is always there to draw the flies back.
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#drainfly 
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Man they're such cuties!! And hey, they don't do harm, so it doesn't hurt to leave them be! I've seen them a few times, silly little guys they are
Hi @zapticuno3930, I produced this episode of Deep Look. The Clogmia albipunctata drain flies that we feature in our video can also reproduce in tree holes or the crook of branches. Thanks for watching! -Gabriela
They mustve survived in stagnant water
Yeah and how much have they changed?
@@gabrielaquiros1966 ooh, that makes sense yeah!! Thank you for answering!
You haven't seen a bathroom infested with them seeing them in the toilet then go on you
Nah f these guys
I had a big issue with these a year or so ago. It wasn't so much that they were flying around so much as they'd be attracted to the water in my refrigerator's ice maker and then freeze to death in there. Every ice cube had flies in them until I got drain cleaner and flypaper
oh my.
jseus
Nice P.S.A that ice and water dispensers need flushing every once in awhile! If you see these little guys anywhere but the bathroom/kitchen drains, there's unseen and potentially harmful bacterial growth.
Flice cubes? That must have been unnerving. I've never had an ice maker, but my first thought is, be careful what you use to clean it! I'd use bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar, maybe some citric acid, but nothing toxic for the pipes supplying its water.
Sounds like you could've sold those like novelty ice cubes.
I always did wonder what these insects were. This is why I love this channel!
Same, no wonder searching for moths in bathroom got me nothing.
IKR! I just never bothered to look it up online
I read "your pipes" and for a horrifying second I thought it was something that lives in your throat. Thank you for instilling a new phobia.
Oh, dear, are you a singer?
yeah, throat
😂@@oldcowbb
i love these flies. because all they do is nothing in my bathroom walls. i call them the "npc fly"😂
You have to figure out how to unlock their quests.
Uh uh they be flying when disturbed I can’t
what a name lmfaoo
I have been observing these little fellas around my bathroom sink for years. I had never considered how their fuzzy wings could help them adapt to their environment!
Adapt? What's that, sumtin wrong with yer head?
I’m a pretty clean person so I always wondered where these strange flys came from. The weren’t fruit flys or the ones that would come from my potted plants so it was always a mystery. Thanks for letting us know.
bt what adult flies eat?
@@KlaunFuhrer-du7frsame. Drain sludge I think. For something so disgusting to me, and inevitable in being, it was a relief when I learned they don't spread diseases at all.
I don't see these in my house, but I see these guys constantly at the showers at my gym and now I know where they're coming from. XD At least I can take some comfort in knowing they don't spread disease though; thanks Deep Look!
I used to have them when I moved into my apartment. But I started gathering a tub of hot water and flushed it down at once, I don’t know if that works but I haven’t seen any recently.
Same here!! I don’t like any insects in my space!! 🥴🥴
Always had some of this guys buzzing around an aquaculture lab I used to work in. I thought they were actually moths at first! Really cool to learn why I always found them there. Lots of organic waste and water.
Interesting!
That's interesting
Another way ,other way than drowning.? Please, How do you get rid your home of these pests?
@@johnalcala7984 Clean your pipes, use drain cleaner.
As a plumber i approve of this fly
How often do you get people calling you because they’re seeing these flies in their homes and want rid of them? Is it a very common thing? My office building has them.
The fly family is the craziest group of insects. They've taken over just about any niche you can think of. The variety of body forms is very cool.
I agree! My favorite flies are the hoverflies, because they mimic bees.
The batflies are the freakiest
“any niche” 😂
I'm pretty sure my first observation of sex in progress was at camp of what I thought after watching Dr. Dolittle (1967) with the "Pushme-Pullme" flies.
There's a species of fly that lives on glaciers, feeding on algae. Survives below freezing point, but will amputate its limbs if their bits become too frostbitten.
I get these in my bathroom from time to time and they are so cute I just leave them alone. Thanks for putting my gunk to good use, kids!
bro how do you find them cute
Cute? I'm sorry CUTE?
😨
Glad you like them!
@@helpme3713 fuzzy things are cute. They break many rules.
Saw this and instantly clicked. Probably my favorite "pest" insect
I have always wondered what those things were! Thank you for the information!
You are so welcome!
You're really cool
In Germany we call them "Butterfly gnat" (Schmetterlingsmücke) and I love the way they look.
So cute!
Thanks for this great video! :)
Glad you like them!
Now that’s a mouth full!
Butterly gnat is an accurate description I love it
Oh really?
So if you hit one, would you make a 'buttergnat squash'?
You should do a video on Rice Weevils! Very well known pests especially on asian households lol
Noted!
@@KQEDDeepLook The next episode is rice weevil. Ikr?
Bogleech said it best: "A few tiny, flying soot balls in a bathroom hardly constitute a "pest problem" most people should be worried about, and if you happen to see one, I think you should if anything be glad to share your space with nature's tiny plumbing fairies."
"plumbing fairies" I love that
Wow. Since a child I’ve always thought these were moths. It’s fascinating how they can live in such an environment but also disgusting how they crawl through and eat that drain slime. The more you know, thanks deep look.
i randomly saw some small wigglers in a toilet once (that hadn't been used in weeks) and never found out what they were, it was one of the most mysterious and confusing incidents until now
Fascinating!
I always wondered where they come from
Great channel as always ❤
Thank you very much!
😘
A bunch of em hang around the corner of my bathroom. It has turned into a hunting place for the spiders. They make a nice little ecosystem. Thanks to them, the red house spiders are alive and kickin.
Do a mini series on the stuff that infests our house plants! Like fungus gnats, snow aphids, etc. Maybe if we can understand them better... we can deal with them better...
Fungus gnats don't really harm the plants though. They eat fungus, it's in the name.
Fungus gnats cause root rot by spreading the fungus Pythium
@@LimeyLassen id argue thats more reason to make that series
I’d like that series
I can handle all kinds of weird animals but bathroom gunk...🤢 It was the hardest video to watch for me on this channel but I made it through. Thanks again for an interesting documentary 😊
They just chillin'
IKR?
I was today years old when thanks to Deep Look I finally learned what the tiny flies in my bathroom are, such a cool channel
Great to hear!
Cool
We had these guys in our seldom-used basement shower a few years ago. Took me forever to figure out where they were coming from. They were so cute that i felt bad taking care of the problem. 🙈
(I solved it with boiling water down the drain)
Boiling water does wonders with drains I'll tell you
@@GandalfTheTsaagan it sure does! Also for unplugging toilets that plungers have given up on.
This also helps with fruit flies that sometimes breed in kitchen drains
I have been waiting for a video on drain flies from you for so long! So happy to finally see it!
My boyfriend keeps pestering me that bathrooms with drain flies are dirty and therefore we need more drain cleaner and to wash the bathroom more often, I finally have a video to send to him that proves these guys are harmless and common everywhere. I still flush their larvae though because that's a bit too gross for me and they tend to grow on the corners.
Another great video! I collected these flies pupae in abundance while doing a stream survey below a well know dried corn cannery's spray irrigation field. It wasn't the grossest stream I ever sampled, but it was right up there on the list. It's the only time I ever saw them outside of a restroom environment.
That is awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Awesome
The narrator's voice and narration are simply top notch! A joy to listen to :)
I''ve been searching for this vid all my life, I finally got it! Thank you!!!
Hooray! I feel special for knowing about biofilm! I actually learned about it looking up information on drain flies. Glad you picked this for an episode!
this is my favorite bug, when i took a CAD class last semester we had to make a decorated box and these was a drain fly on that. on tumblr im the most well known drain fly fan with my own tag for it. ive spread the love for drain flies amongst my friends. i have a drain fly pin and once i buy more beads i plan to make a drain fly perler. i have a really bad scientific journal thingy about drainflies where they didnt edit out the actual parts of the scanner machine and the text is like a milimeter big. i take it with me everywhere i go. im not even that smart and cant understand most of it but i really love this bug. this video rocks because it has drainfly footage with such high quality.
+they have the cutest pupa with bunny ears!!! its really awesome and it makes me sad that other ppl dont like them bc they arent harmful besides allergies and there are some rllly pretty pics of them ive seen. its so cool
We only get these in winters for some reason and they are so adorable yet disgusting. I always thought they were moths.
When I bought my house a few years ago, I had a ton of them, but I just put a glass over them and slid a piece of flat plastic over the opening and let them out on my back patio. They don't fly fast, so they're easy to catch.
I hardly have any now, so I guess I caught them before they could go back down the drain and lay eggs.
Now, I look out for them when spring comes and if I see any, I immediately catch them and put them outside.
They are my toilet friends :) I didn’t know they were so interesting, thanks for your lovely videos!!
Glad you like them!
I think drain flies are pest but they're cute
I’ve seen those things all the time at my college bathrooms! Thanks for helping me learn about these things Deep Look!
They are so chill and cute fluffy looking, I always try not to harm them. This is the first time I learned abouth them, thanks DL!
I'd be great if they just stayed in the pipes instead of coming out to harass me when I'm indisposed.
Thank you for making me know what those things are! I always wondered what those were for a long time.
These are the best videos to watch when you're procrastinating
I love these guys. I dont have to hunt around and look too hard to find something to feed my tiny jumping spider. We started keeping his enclosure in the bathroom so we don't have to walk as far!
Top notch photography and narration, as usual! Thanks!
Thanks for making this his video. I finally know where these creatures come from in my bathroom when the entire house is virtually sealed!!! It changed my perspective towards them. Now i know exactly where to attack 😬
Thanks for solving this mystery! You guys are amazing
Thanks for watching!
No wonder spiders move into my bathroom, it's free food for them.
Drain flies gotta be some of the cutest little insects ever. People are horrified by them but I love em
'bout time someone explained about these guys... Puzzled me for years!
They came and go as they please.
thanks for this episode i always was curious about them but there wasnt many resources about them online
Finally! A name and explanation behind the mystery 🤩✨ Thank you very much, Deep Look!
Thanks for the video. I really needed this!
Glad it was helpful!
I do quite like drain flies, great video
Cool, thanks. :-)
Yeah fr
Love the channel keep up the good work, Blessed Be.
Thank you very much to the crew, camera in particular! Your courage is greatly appreciated more than ever! Hopefully they not suffer from trauma in the bathroom!
I've never regretted subscribing to this channel
I see one or two of them on occasion. I don’t mind them because they look like flying little hearts. 🤷🏼♂️
I remember my freshman dorm had an infestation of these! People did everything to try to get rid of them but nothing seemed to work. There were always flies. They eventually shut the dorm down, thankfully.
My cat loves these guys. He never eats them or hurts them, he just likes to watch them when they pop up sometimes. (He looks a bit like a drain fly, too.)
They are cool!
Basically the part of the ecosystem. As long as they and their friends (for example spiders) leave us alone, I'm totally fine with their presence!
It's not just our planet.
I have these in the basement bathroom at my work. I knew they were Moth Flies but didn’t know about the rest of this. Fascinating!
I see them here and there, time to time, and their cuteness is the reason I leave them be. Fuzzy and round wings, how can I say no to that?
Another super fascinating episode! Not sure it was the best idea to be eating while watching this tho lol. I've seen these little guys around, fortunately never in extremely large quantities. Glad to hear the flies are pretty harmless. And (their adult forms at least) even look kinda cute!
Ive been wondering what the heck that insect call my whole life and how it won't drop when i spray water on it. Now i do, thank you Deep Look!
I clean houses and used to live in a travel trailer tiny house thing. The only places I've seen these little buggers is places that have broken pipes or roots invading the sewer/ septic lines, places with really old pipes or travel trailers. I always wondered why.
These videos are 3 minutes long but feel like 30 seconds because they’re so interesting. I need MORE!
I love these little guys!!!
Whenever I have a pet baby mantis I would often catch the drain fly in my bathroom to feed to the tiny mantises:)
I had already figured out where those buggers came from. It's a good idea to get rid of them since they may not land on you personally, they still gunk up the areas around pipe exits and they can spread mold.
I do find it funny that they almost look cute under a high res camera, irl they're just docile mini moths.
They don't spread mold.
@@RAN-os5gz Any scientific data to back this? Or just "trust me bro?". Because I've seen these flies spread filth around after friends of mine went on holiday for 3 weeks and these buggers had hatched and spread.
There's also the fact to deal with that not every fly of this caliber is the exact same the world over. But no matter where you live, these things live in, eat and poop filth and mold. Of course they spread slime and gunk around, and where there's slime and gunk, mold can grow.
Finally! A new video from Deep Look!
Thanks! We try to publish a new video every 3 weeks.
These flies were the bane of my existence when I lived in a ground-level apartment that had 12 units per building sharing sewage.
I had (still have) a diy wet/dry sump filter for my turtle's aquarium and these guys found their way inside of it... I tried multiple times to get rid of them and failed every time, they were just too resilient. In the end, I shut the filter down and went to a canister set up for a short time, while I left the entire wet/dry system outside in the shed over winter (-40°c, Canada). Ended up reusing some bits but happy to say they havent come back. Also glad they didnt find their way into our actual plumbing. Theyd just fly around the house annoyingly.
Love the floofies. Always wondered why they had such big wide wings.
Clogmia ahahah love the name, will defintely remember that. So that is is how they enter homes. Love the video deeplook 10/10
Thanks!
Oh
I would always see these in my elementary school as a kid, and I never knew what they were! They’re so strange :)
Another insect with a huge huge contribution to our environment. ❤❤❤
I always thought they were some sort of moth as they leave behind similar residue to moths when I squish em
One time I saw an entire wall covered with them in a public bathroom💀💀💀
Man I’ve seen this in my bathroom THERE SO CUTE SO it doesn’t hurt to leave them alone! There so cutie!
Always loved those cute lil floofers
I never knew there was a practical reason for them being so fuzzy! Like a bit of microfiber cloth. Amazing!
I remember watching this channel when it had Amy and I think around 150K subscribers. At the time I thought y’all deserved at least a million subscribers! So glad to see this gem of a channel still shining on RUclips many years later!
OH MY GOODNESS! I've always wondered what's the deal with those flies, what do they eat, and where the hell they come from since they don't like to fly much.. I'm just excited finally see this! Thanks alot !!
They're the most "adorable" looking fly. I think I've only seen 1 of these each time during spring and the fall. They don't come back for a long while, from what I notice.
Whenever I watch a Vid and I find myself, mouth agape, muttering "...Wow..." again & again without realizing it that tells
me clearly that it is a great video -
Wonderful!
thanks, I had quite a bit last summer and couldn't tell where they are from. great video as always
No problem 👍
This is why I love this channel! I learn so much about what I usually see as pest. Now that I know, I actually won’t bother them too much anymore do they can eat all that slime. Not going to be as forgiving towards gnats though…
I adore these little guys whenever I see them.
I love these flies and how moth like they look
I have seen this insect soo many times and wondered what it's called. They are very calm and look like moths.
i Love drain flies they’re so fuzzy and cute and they’re shaped like hearts ❤
I once read that botflies like to use drain flies as carriers for their eggs, which are then transferred to any suitable host unlucky enough to get that drain fly landing on them.
OK! Time to schedule drain cleaner every 6 months. DL I have never flinched at your videos before but this one had me gagging. Thanks for the lesson.
I call these guys "ash flies" because of how messy they get as corpses. I'm also not the only one who sees some resemblance to moths, it seems. Interesting (and surprisingly somewhat reassuring) video
With the exception of MVPs like Elephant mosquitoes and Hoverflies, diptera are probably the only order of arthropods I find generally repulsive. But even I feel compelled to come to the drain fly's defence because it is easy to recoil at where and how they live without considering:
1) They help control the microbes that make drain clogs gross and smelly.
2) They are a hard-to-miss bio-indicator that it is time to clean the drains!
Wow! one of many life mysteries i wished i didnt know. I used to assume they were a type of moth but this makes more sense, moths would need a dryer environment to raise their young while flies need moist slimy sewage muck to thrive.
I think the first time I saw these little guys is when I was working on a broken drain pipe in Hawaii. There were literally hundreds of them around this broken pipe in the wall. I was fascinated with how they walk like robots, taking 90 degree turns and sometimes spinning in circles like a wind-up toy. Super cute! One of the janitor ladies was grossed out by them and called them “sewer flies”.
I figured, well they don’t bother humans and they’re doing something good, so what’s the problem?
Plus, they’re so damn cute!
So they eat the gunk in your pipes, are harmless, cool looking, and don’t carry disease? Great! This is a bug I don’t mind sticking around.
Just to add to this, I had absolutely jazillions of these in a very full (nearly blocked) drain in my block of flats (apartments for the rest of you). They only really were a problem in my flat, as I was on the ground floor, closest to the drain. It was deeply frustrating, drain cleaner did absolutely nothing to get rid of them. Luckily, when my (very much blocked by now) drain was unblocked, they were completely gone. Just a tip for those who've used drain cleaner and haven't seen any improvements!
I love these guys so much :) I see one or two occasionally in my kitchen. There always welcome here. I oftern have some fruit flies around too 😅
drain flies and carpet beetles are both really cute “pests” that i don’t think i could ever kill
Great Work always
What cute lil‘ fellas.