I’m at my wits end. I’ve been having some sort of never ending issue with flies in my apartment… I originally thought they were regular fruit flies and usually I can solve that with a vinegar/cone trap. I’ve since made 7 or 8 traps that consistently get 40-50 flies and the problem hasn’t stopped. I got draino for my bathroom sink and shower, I got green gobbler fly killer for kitchen sink and both bathroom drains. I did baking soda and vinegar down all drains, I’ve got a raid fly spray that I’ve been using incessantly for days, have probably killed over a hundred of them like that or by smashing. I’ve checked all my potted plants, have sticky traps on them (empty). I’ve thrown all my food away. Had my house keeper come to clean the apartment top to bottom. I’ve checked forgotten cabinets and drawers to see if somehow there’s a rotting something somewhere. All my windows are closed. I don’t know what else to do! And now I am not even sure I am dealing with one species or not because some of the flies look small and brown like regular fruit flies but lately I’ve been seeing these bigger ones that are mostly black with stripes on the body…

I am not sure if it’s related at all but I had a termite problem last week. It’s a long story but there’s a plank of wood on my ceiling that goes from my bathroom into my bedroom and throughout the 9 years I’ve lived here there has been this recurring termite problem. It usually goes like I see the “droppings” or whatever the tiny brown particles are that have fallen from the ceiling. I call the termite guy, he comes and drills some holes to treat it and then we go on living our lives. Last week this happened again but this time he didn’t treat it he just painted over the old holes/plaster and said “that’ll kill them” but you know what? IT DIDNT. So then I came home to a bunch of the stupid flying termites that are shit fliers and just land like confetti all over my bathroom. It was a nightmare. The guy came back immediately, drilled the holes, treated and cleaned up. I asked him about these flies and he said they were unrelated and also that my vinegar traps were the only thing I had to do. Except they are persistent.

So here I am asking — are these two different fly species? How do I get rid of them?? 

Please help me 😩 fruit flies? Something else?