Drain fly
The drain fly is a tiny, fuzzy fly that looks like a mini moth. Its wings are covered in soft hairs with black and white spots. You often see it sitting still on the bathroom wall near the sink or the shower.
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Fun facts
It is covered in tiny hairs that keep water off, so it is very hard to drown. Even boiling water hardly bothers it.
A grown-up drain fly lives only about 12 days.
It is a weak flier and spends most of its life just sitting on walls.
Its babies actually help clean dirty water at sewage plants by eating the gunk.
To get rid of drain flies, people clean the drains really well, because that takes away the babies' food.
Most asked questions about Drain fly
?Where do drain flies come from?
They grow up as tiny larvae in the slimy gunk inside sink, shower and floor drains.
?Are drain flies harmful?
No, they are considered harmless. They do not bite, they are just a bit of a nuisance.
?How do you get rid of drain flies?
Clean the drains thoroughly and keep them clean for a few weeks. Without gunk to eat, the larvae cannot grow.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Clogmia albipunctata
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Psychodidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Psychodidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Bathroom moth midge, Bathroom moth fly
Where the facts come from
- Clogmia albipunctata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by xpda. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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