Drain flies can definitely get in through the air conditioner, especially if it was not installed properly. The thing about moth flies is that they can get in through the tiniest holes they can find. If there is anything in your house that is not sealed properly and has access to outside, it can be a potential entry point.
Air conditioners that are installed to windows are no exception. They might cool down your house during a warm summer but sometimes they come with an unexpected weak point. This is why it is important to entrust an experienced professional with the mounting process.
Otherwise, you are just letting in an unnecessary amount of insects such as drain flies to your house.
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Check the Sides of Your AC
Once drain flies start to appear in your house, it is important to start looking for potential entry points. Checking the sides of your air conditioner and the whole device altogether is part of this process. There could be holes on the filter or the AC itself as well.
- Related article: Drain Fly Identification
If there are no such holes, then those drain flies can’t get through the AC unit itself. If it seems like they are coming through from that area, then the unit is probably not sealed properly. You need to adjust it so that the air conditioner fits perfectly to your window size.
Now if it’s an old unit, then there might be cracks around it where those little pests can make it through. These are usually unnoticeable until something like this happens and insects start to enter the house.
Tighten Your AC Seal
Maybe there are no cracks around your air conditioner but it doesn’t mean that the sides of the device are perfectly sealed. There has to be a tight seal all around the machine so that nothing can get in. As you check it, you might find out that there is indeed a small gap where drain flies can slide in.
It doesn’t have to be a complicated process to fix this issue. If you find some small gaps on the sides, you can always use some duct tape to cover them. There are also different sealant tapes that usually can be bought in hardware stores.
Either way, it is not going to be hard to fix this problem. Finding out where drain flies are actually coming from is the hard part. Eliminating them from drains and fixing holes is going to be easy as pie.
Is Your Drain Fly Problem Fixed?
It is not always straightforward to tell whether moth flies are indeed coming through the air conditioner. Maybe some of them made it in when you have opened the front door. Sometimes, it is hard to notice those little drain flies.
Does it seem like that the air conditioner is the problem? You can quickly verify it by buying some fly stickers at the store and hanging them near the AC. When moth flies come in, the fly sticker is going to be the first thing they notice.
Those stickers are designed to attract these pests. If the AC is the main source, you are going to find some flies stuck in the sticker. When this happens, you can start looking for gaps around the air conditioner.
10 natural ways + a bio solution to get rid of drain flies
If you have drain flies already, it can be very tricky to get rid of them. Sometimes very-very tricky. We wrote about 10 natural ways how to get rid of drain flies, plus reviewed a bio drain gel as well. Here you can find the super detailed article: How to Get Rid of Drain Flies