Are house flies dangerous to piggies?!

Neesy95

Neesy95

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Hey,

So I have recently been very very sick and sadly I wasn't able to do as much of a deep clean for the past week or so as I would have liked. I got a really terrible tummy bug and then just as that was getting better, I caught a terrible flu (being asthmatic this really took a toll on me) . So have only been spot cleaning and sadly just not a full on scrub and wash of the cage as usual.

Last night I was just going to change the litter tray puppy pad and then i noticed underneath the litter tray there was what looked to be piggie poo. And I just happened to fixate on it for a second whilst I was thinking about something and I noticed this "poop" was moving and had a buddy! I started freaking out, and getting stressed. So naturally, all the piggies are evacuated, and the c and c pulled apart, scrubbed, washed, dried, scrubbed again, excessive hoovering etc etc. I didn't find anymore. And then I obviously replaced everything fresh in the cage.

Then I did the piggie check. Much to their annoyance, I'm pretty sure they think I am strange, because I looked through their fur for ages, and checked out all their little bums to make sure there were no signs of anything related to fly strike.

There definitely isn't any sign of anything wrong. I have checked so many times in the past nearly 24 hours that they just now let me look at their bums whilst I know they securely judge me.

Now I know its a house fly larvae because my partner took a very very close up picture and I have confirmed it online (after hours of research) it's definitely not a blow fly larvae, but instead a house fly larvae.

And the flies around the house don't look to be the blue bottle type. They don't make that same loud buzzy noise, and aren't as crazy fast or annoying as the blue l bottle type. I think they are coming in because my flat is generally quite warm and I have grass and trees on both sides of the flat, and we are prone to insects because of it.

Now I know flies aren't ideal, I have about 7 fly sticky traps all over the bedroom (also the piggies bedroom). I am definitely doing everything I can to eliminate these little pesky intruders.

But do I need to be worried about fly strike with these flies?

Because I didn't finish deep cleaning the c and c last night until 2am, I have had about 5 hours sleep, I have been stressed all day at work and then i have come home and I have managed to stress even more. And I'm sort of losing my mind.

I really can't think of anything else to do either, I'm changing all the puppy pads every day and in some cases 2 x a day(my piggies seem to go toilet mainly on the pads or in the litter tray).

I'm keeping their house as dry as possible, I have traps everywhere and I'm losing my mind. Can I chill out a little bit or are house flies just as dangerous as the blue bottle type flies?

Please help, its really appreciated.
 
I'll admit that I know very little about blue bottle flies or flystrike (myiasis), but from what I understand, houseflies are not myiasis-causing by nature; that is, they don't have parasitic larvae because they lay their eggs in feces and/or decaying matter ... they can lay in carrion, and apparently that can occasionally lead to them laying eggs in a living creature, but they don't need to, so it's rare and would generally be in an existing open wound. They were interested in the piggy poo, not the piggies.
They're annoying and carry contaminants (they like food and feces ... and they don't just eat when they land), but that's usually pretty much it. Apparently, they can be used by myiasis-causing flies as a carrier, but given that houseflies aren't blood-feeders (don't bite, just slurp whatever), they don't really want to land on your running, jumping piggy, that's a pretty low risk, too (no landing, no transfer of hitchhiking parasites). The most common issue caused by house flies is food contamination issues.
 
Thank you so much that's really helpful! I really appreciate it. That's made it a lot more clearer to me too, it was pretty hard to find the information online in one place. It was lots of different sites and me trying to piece together the information and then for me to try to apply it in practice, was really stressful!

I guess all I can do is make sure fly traps are up and my piggies are okay.
 
Its very unlikely the fly larvae have harmed your piggies, flystrike tends to mostly affect older piggies or long haired piggies that have trouble cleaning themselves- and is caused by the greenbottle Lucilia flies, or the large bluebottle/blow flies Calliphora, not small Musca houseflies.
Most healthly piggies also have a well developed sense of the "yuck factor" and avoid insects if they can.
But do try keep up to the cage cleans, weekly as a minimum- at room temperature in the UK at this time of year fly larvae take about a week to hatch!
F10 disinfectant brand do an insecticidal version that is safe to use on animal cages, maybe that might be a good investment? I usually use this on my windows and windowsills in the piggy room too in the summer, it kills flies on contact- very good stuff!
 
@PigglePuggle Thank you so much for the tip on the F10 disinfectant. Will definitely invest. I was scared to use products that might harm the piggies, didn't realise there was an animal safe one.

Thank you so so much.

I do normally clean the cage often, thoroughly once a week and spot cleans as and when it's needed. It's just I was so sick for about 10 days and it wasn't possible for me to do the deep clean.
 
Neesy95 said:
Hey,

So I have recently been very very sick and sadly I wasn't able to do as much of a deep clean for the past week or so as I would have liked. I got a really terrible tummy bug and then just as that was getting better, I caught a terrible flu (being asthmatic this really took a toll on me) . So have only been spot cleaning and sadly just not a full on scrub and wash of the cage as usual.

Last night I was just going to change the litter tray puppy pad and then i noticed underneath the litter tray there was what looked to be piggie poo. And I just happened to fixate on it for a second whilst I was thinking about something and I noticed this "poop" was moving and had a buddy! I started freaking out, and getting stressed. So naturally, all the piggies are evacuated, and the c and c pulled apart, scrubbed, washed, dried, scrubbed again, excessive hoovering etc etc. I didn't find anymore. And then I obviously replaced everything fresh in the cage.

Then I did the piggie check. Much to their annoyance, I'm pretty sure they think I am strange, because I looked through their fur for ages, and checked out all their little bums to make sure there were no signs of anything related to fly strike.

There definitely isn't any sign of anything wrong. I have checked so many times in the past nearly 24 hours that they just now let me look at their bums whilst I know they securely judge me.

Now I know its a house fly larvae because my partner took a very very close up picture and I have confirmed it online (after hours of research) it's definitely not a blow fly larvae, but instead a house fly larvae.

And the flies around the house don't look to be the blue bottle type. They don't make that same loud buzzy noise, and aren't as crazy fast or annoying as the blue l bottle type. I think they are coming in because my flat is generally quite warm and I have grass and trees on both sides of the flat, and we are prone to insects because of it.

Now I know flies aren't ideal, I have about 7 fly sticky traps all over the bedroom (also the piggies bedroom). I am definitely doing everything I can to eliminate these little pesky intruders.

But do I need to be worried about fly strike with these flies?

Because I didn't finish deep cleaning the c and c last night until 2am, I have had about 5 hours sleep, I have been stressed all day at work and then i have come home and I have managed to stress even more. And I'm sort of losing my mind.

I really can't think of anything else to do either, I'm changing all the puppy pads every day and in some cases 2 x a day(my piggies seem to go toilet mainly on the pads or in the litter tray).

I'm keeping their house as dry as possible, I have traps everywhere and I'm losing my mind. Can I chill out a little bit or are house flies just as dangerous as the blue bottle type flies?

Please help, its really appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi
Normal houseflies are not dangerous; it is the large blue bottle and other blow flies that are laying their eggs into the flesh of living animals; typically in the anus area.
Blue bottles have a strong blue/green sheen compared to house flies. At risk are especially older/frail piggies that can no longer clean themselves or negcected piggies with open sores.

House fly
1652563964101.png

Bue Bottle fly
1652563949656.png


More information on fly strike in thos link here: Fly Strike

During the warmer days, you can occasionally have an outbreak of hatching flies from a pile of eggs laid into the bedding or harmless maggots crawling around, as well as other bugs; more commonly in outdoors housing. Don't panic, check your piggies and just give the cage/hutch a good deep clean!
 
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