Pesky flies!

[Laurax]

Good morning all,

I haven’t been on this forum for quite some time and the last post was about my beautiful Netherland dwarf having a cancerous lump!
Bunny is still going super strong and will update on that thread but we have run into another issue! Flies.

We have had a very hot couple of days in West Yorkshire and i have been working strange shifts, leaving the boyfriend to clean the bunny on an evening.
So he missed two nights because we didn’t have any bedding left for her which i didn’t know about, then last night ive come to clean my girl and her litter corner was swarming with flies when i moved the top layer (boyfriend is fully in the bad books!)

Checked my girl thoroughly and she doesn’t have a dirty wet bum, she is dry clean and no signs of anything untoward (other than the new scratches down my arms following inspection)
The flies are strange, they are the smallest tiny little things; no bigger than a quarter of a grain of rice. They are nowhere but her litter corner.
Not fruit flies as they are not brown in colour.

I cleaned my girl thoroughly last night and again this morning and the flies are still there, i put down a bowl with water apple cider vinegar sugar and washing up liquid and this morning managed to capture 5 of the little terrors!
My question is one how do we tackle this problem (first idea was get rid of the boyfriend) and secondly do these tiny flies pose a risk to my girl?

My bunny will not use a litter tray or plastic tray so unfortunately for us she goes straight in her cage corner. I have always been methodical with cleaning, every night clean out of wee corner pick up pieces of poop in the rest of the cage etc.

Any help would be so appreciated!

 

[Zoobec]

I don’t know what the flies would be, but if she tends to toilet in the corner of the hutch I would try a litter tray there. Low under bed storage boxes make good litter trays, if she doesn’t like going into a box you could try a low sided tray like a dog bed or potting tray tidy like this https://www.sam-turner.co.uk/produc...O63WMHO3rvmWh6ojkCo4CYDEguvOKvIRoCO6cQAvD_BwE I would use non slip vynil or rubber matting to line the hutch floor and make it easier to clean. I would keep the hutch floor clear of bedding apart from the litter tray and put some wood pellet cat litter or newspaper in the bottom and hay on top to encourage her to poo and wee there. Keeping it clean and cleaning with the vinegar should help.

 

[InspectorMorse]

Tiny flies are not a risk, it is mostly the green bottle fly that can cause Flystrike . Fly deterrents I use are sticky fly strips, electric fly zappers, fly netting/screens.

Someone posted info about these on a Rabbit FB Group the other day, apparently they work well

 

[keletkezes]

There's a lot of anti-fly window/door stuff available in the UK now, it's much better than it used to be!

The flies might be those weird ones that fly lazily in squares around an area of a room, aren't much interested in going out etc. I eventually found it on the internet, it's a lesser housefly! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_house_fly They're more annoying than dangerous but best safe than sorry and I wouldn't want to be your boyfriend right now :thumb:

 

[Shimmer]

I don’t know what the flies would be, but if she tends to toilet in the corner of the hutch I would try a litter tray there. Low under bed storage boxes make good litter trays, if she doesn’t like going into a box you could try a low sided tray like a dog bed or potting tray tidy like this https://www.sam-turner.co.uk/produc...O63WMHO3rvmWh6ojkCo4CYDEguvOKvIRoCO6cQAvD_BwE I would use non slip vynil or rubber matting to line the hutch floor and make it easier to clean. I would keep the hutch floor clear of bedding apart from the litter tray and put some wood pellet cat litter or newspaper in the bottom and hay on top to encourage her to poo and wee there. Keeping it clean and cleaning with the vinegar should help.

I would go for this. The flies will be going where there is moisture, so its important to make sure the whole area is completely dry after cleaning it out - which is easier with lino and litter trays.