Can someone tell me about their habits so I can get rid of them!!!

PLEASE!!!!!

Thanks

Jo

I agree with Charles' ID. The flies are phorids. They thrive on damp, rotting organic matter, so you need to find out what is drawing them and dispose of it. I get them around my kitchen garbage and in-sink-erator occasionally, but not in any numbers. We had them infesting Drosophila ("fruit fly") cultures at the Cincinnati Zoo.

I'm stripping all the "desert blend" substrate out of the snake cages-and replacing it with newspaper for a bit-that should take care of the problem!! I figure since that's organic they may have gotten into that stuff. I'll let you know if that solves the problem!! Who would think-I'm in the middle of winter and have a bug problem like this!!

Yeah but I have also caught 8 deer mice and a shew too. sigh.........
I keep a nice clean house and still I get unwanted animals from outside--oh yeah-I do have a cat-who is deathly afraid of mice!!

sheesh

thanks for listening to my rant! Oh and the mantis died yesterday-she was just old..... she left me with plenty of eggs though!!

Jo

I gave up on housekeeping a long time ago, when I simply re-framed the experience from "I'm a slob" to "I'm promoting biodiversity:-)" Relieves some guilt, good for a laugh. Heck, even the most spotless houses still have 'some' uninvited critters. Hey, what's a "shew?" :-) Moving your images to the guide page.

oops-I ment to say shrew--small evil insectivore with a big appetite, sharp teeth, poisonous saliva (short-tail shrew), and pretty fuzzy silver-grey fur. Has a short lifespan, can die of heart failure if you touch it. Very weird!
(Weird fact-I saw one devour an entire frog within an hour. And the frog was bigger than he was.)

Not good to have in house-bite toes!!