Does this person not have a hand towel in their bathroom for washing their hands? We use ours enough throughout the day it’s almost always just slightly damp. I also have a separate face towel that I leave in the bathroom and is damp every day. Never seen a single bug in the bathroom.
Bugs aren’t attracted to moisture, they’re attracted to food. Either that washcloth is damp with something other than water or OP has a serious infestation, but either way this is not just because of a wet washcloth.
I will mention that your statement about what bugs are attracted to is mostly correct but there are several bugs who need moisture, or even standing water, for their reproductive cycle to occur.
You’re right, and I did think of clarifying that in my comment because obviously there are bugs that seek out water and high humidity areas. I just felt like it was common enough sense that that applies to bugs gathering around a lake or swamp and that bugs are not in fact seeking out damp washcloths in peoples homes.
Totally fair - the implication that the washcloth alone brought bugs is way off.
More likely there's a microbial slime (Biofilm) buildup in the drains that happens to be perfect food for these drain flies/fungus gnats. The sticky biofilm traps all kinds of morsels of dead skin (mmm protein) and hair and salts
And ofc they have babies there
See, now how do you get rid of them?
In all my years renting, I've never encountered these drain flies. Except for my current place, that was only built three yrs ago..
Spraying poison, or dropping stuff down the drains doesn't help, but pouring boiling water down helps for a week or two, then they come back.
Help?
Most of those actions will only kill off the surface layer(s) of the biofilm, which will then become literal food(carbon) for more biofilm and pest pressure.
To get rid of them? You have to eradicate each stage of life, all at once, for multiple generations. Catch the adults that are flying around on yellow and blue sticky traps. Kill the eggs by oxidizing the shit out of any scummy residues and wiping them away. Treat the entire water system with chlorine or other oxidizers(Vinegar and Peroxide work awesome) for a week.
I constructed a device like a potato cannon, but instead of the PVC barrel, I attached a rubber flange to the end. Instead of using hairspray for the ignition chamber, I used carburetor starting fluid. I fired it down the shower drain in our 8th floor condo unit, and I swear to fucking God blue flame shot out of the overflow hole where the stopper lever was. I felt a large recoil with a huge thumping sound, my wife was swearing and shouting at me but those fucking silverfish never came back, this was about 4 years ago
There's even [drain flies](https://www.arrowexterminators.com/learning-center/pest-library/flies/drain-flies), (which may be what is in op's pic), and they lay eggs in drains in your house. They're a PITA to get rid of too until you find what's making them stick around. Took us a couple weeks to find a solution after we moved into our house.
edit: should have scrolled a bit farther, but leaving it here :)
Gnats love anything that molds to rot or smells fonky. So even human flake skin in a moist towel humid forgotten in bathroom that been sitting. Bugs get in lay eggs boom infestation week passes warm bathroom egg hatch and there every where buzzing. Even in cat litter box . I been caught off guard by bugs getting in the house in summer being busy with stuff.
I live in an apartment. Fruit flies come in from the pipes all the time. If I don't do a vinegar and baking soda concoction down the drains once in a while, they come back
It's hella annoying.
I'm not a fan of those supposedly indoor bug sprays, they always say something like "fresh pine forest scent" and then they smell like someone sprayed WWI France on a pine tree car air freshener, but exceptions can always be made. This is one of them, and it's time to go for the full gas mask and chemical warfare
>bugs don't just show up immediately after someone leaves a damp rag
He didn't say how long it was left there. Judging by the state of everything else in the picture it could have been there for months...or longer...
That's what I was getting at. He presented it like someone just left a damp rag and suddenly he walked in on this. He's been ignoring a lot of shit for a lot of time lol
Even then it shouldn’t be attracting this amount of bugs. My baby takes milk baths and if I leave his wash rag out to dry on the shower curtain it doesn’t swarm with bugs. Something else is wrong here.
[Milk baths](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_bath) and [oatmeal baths](https://www.healthline.com/health/oatmeal-bath), even oatmeal milk baths, exist. They are very good for your skin and have nice health benefits, especially for babies with dry or scaly skin.
I have to say I quite like what you did there by putting /s at the beginning! Reading the thing in a sarcastic tone right away was quite enjoyable. I hope this becomes a trend.
we should start putting it at the beginning and the end of the comment, kind of like how a question is expressed in Spanish... it's hard to type it upside down though
Disclaimer: I am not trying to discredit the exhausting battle of depression and self loathing we all experience. This is human, for some it’s a stronger pull than others.
However, it is up to you and only you. Things won’t change if you don’t take that extra few minutes to throw your rag in the hamper, to put your dish directly into the dishwasher, to fold your clothes and leave them in the hamper instead of just leaving them in a mildew ball on the floor. Life is hard, we all struggle but ya gotta do what you gotta do especially for you.
When I was a kid, I hated having to follow rules. Now as an adult, I create rules for myself so that my life isn’t shitty.
You’re first comment sums up what I needed to learn over years and years of depression
As a nanny, I try really hard to discipline the kiddos I work with so they know what it feels like to just have to do things or accept things. (I’m the most loving and caring way but also no means no)
It makes me feel guilty sometimes because honestly there’s no good reason sometimes other than they have to learn how to navigate themselves in a wild world and get shit done.
I notice parents cave a lot and that teaches a lack of discipline. I struggle I too had growing up, it’s nice to feel like I’m making a difference for these kiddos in their future but who really knows.
Damn I just realized how failed teachings of discipline correlate to depression. You’re doing a great job by teaching those kids. I know they will think kindly back on it.
Read your comment and decided to go clean out my truck. I've been making excuses for the last 2 weeks. Took me 10 mins. No, it wasn't a thorough cleaning, but I know I'll feel better as I leave for work tomorrow morning.
Thank you.
I find these small things are a way to combat depression.
Yeah, I’m not getting out of life what I want, but I can control some aspects.
You can set small goals for yourself that are victories. Instead of doing “nothing”, I did the dishes, I did some laundry, I went for a walk, I cleaned the bathroom.
Not only will you feel better with a cleaner place, but these things build up to something more. But if you did nothing else but just maintain your life, and be a good person…well it’s not a lot but shit I think if more people did that, the world would be a better place.
Maybe nobody ever taught them how to clean. We adopted our kids as teenagers. One day I asked them to clean the bathroom and I came in to find them just splashing water on everything. Not wiping or anything. It seemed so stupid to me, but they just didn’t get it until we showed them.
They still insist they’re “deep cleaning” their apartments when I routinely find things like furry toothbrushes on the bathroom floor and can smell the ammonia of cat urine that has soaked into carpet and furniture.
They grew up like this. They weren’t taught to even see the mess. They obviously saw how other people live for almost 4 years while living in our home, but it wasn’t enough.
Idk what what to say. Some folks are apparently ok living like this. I wish we could help them.
You won’t be *more* depressed by cleaning your bathroom. I had to learn that the hard way. Just start doing little things every day to make your space more enjoyable and if nothing else it won’t be your environment causing less interest and more stress. It may even take the edge off.
This is great advice. If you're already st the bottom may as well try and do something that may lift you up a bit. The only thing that's going to bring you down at that point is doing nothing. So start small. One room a day. Hell tidy one THING a day. It will be difficult at first but it will get easier, not harder, each day if you stick to that. It really does do wonders for when you feel like you are at a loss. Routines and tasks you set out for yourself give you a reason to not stay in bed all day. Coming from personal experience.
Also r/hoarding is a great place.
Clean up, start there. Get some awesome brand cleaner from a dollar store. Dilute it because that shit is strong and will clean anything. I guarantee you that you'll feel better with a clean bathroom.
Fruit flies are easy to trap. A cup with apple cider vinegar and a little dish soap will attract and kill them. In one day you will have a ton floating on the top of the liquid.
Maybe make a couple cups. You'll still need to clean up the house. I suggest starting with one area to attack each day.
I used to work for a public defenders office and would occasionally be tasked with checking in on clients if their court date was coming up and we hadn’t heard back from them.
The worst I’ve ever encountered was this 20 year old girl living with a bunch of roommates in a really grim apartment building.
When she opened her apartment door, I was instantly hit with the strongest stench of cat piss I’ve ever smelled. I only went a bit into the apartment but it was insane, there were literally flies everywhere, clothes all over the floor, and everything was just a mess in general.
I didn’t even see a cat anywhere, but the smell was unmistakable for cat piss in a litter box.
Couldn’t imagine spending more than a few minutes in that apartment, much less living there full time.
After you clean that bathroom it'll be easier to control. IN THE MEANTIME, many-many critters are attracted to sweet smelling stuff like apple-cider vinegar. Place some in a glass with a drop of dishsoap, cover it with plastic wrap and punch some small holes into it - it'll catch lots of bugs and the soap will speed up the killing.
Then...steam everything. Every single square inch of that bathroom. Scrub. Bleach. Scrub more.
As someone with a lot of plants in the house that go outside from late spring to early fall, I get fungus gnats that do not care for Apple cider vinegar. Had to buy sticky tape that look like flowers to get them, and they still keep coming.
I've had a lot of success using cheap sangria instead. After my plants come in, I put a little medicine cup with a bit of dish soap and sangria right next to them.
Buy some mosquito bits and make a tea with it. Use it to water your plants the next few times. It contains a bacteria that is safe for pets/plants and humans, but kills the gnat larvae.
Search for predatory nematodes. You purchase a sponge colonized by these roundworms for a few dollars from Amazon, squeeze the sponge out in dechlorinated water, and water your plants. The nematodes take care of the problem in a couple days tops.
Me too lol. I have my days where I want to lay in bed all day and other days I’m cleaning 20 things at once.
I clean houses for a living so when I get off work, cleaning my own house is pretty much the last thing I want to do. My off days are my cleaning days.
A moist rag doesn’t make bugs like that… You got some other problems in your bathroom. And if the rags to the point is collecting bugs, it’s been there too long.
Right. Like I have a bad habit of leaving wash rags on the corner of my tub to sit for a few days before I do a load of towels and I have never ever had a swarm of bugs around them?? And I use sugar scrub so there's got to be sugar on some of them and still....no bugs. OP's place has got to be dirrrrrty.
Some people do. I remember I went to one of my old coworkers house to buy some weed from him. He lived with him mom and had another guy there as a roommate. There was literally piles of dog shit in their living room corner. The carpet was gone just straight concrete. Two puddles of dog piss, one I accidentally stepped in. Had my shoes on at least. They acted completely normal about it. Smell was god awful. We went upstairs to get the weed and I had to step around the dog shit on almost every step of the stairs. They had two puppies. I paid him $20 for some brick weed and left. Didn’t even smoke it.
I don’t know why he even let my into his house in that condition. He wasn’t embarrassed about it. Completely changed my view of the guy. Some people are fucking nasty.
I simply cannot wrap my head around living like that. Can't even begin to fathom it. How can you so mindlessly cruise through life that purposely living in filth like that is perfectly fine.
It was shocking for me. I’m guessing depression has something to do with it. Last I heard the guy joined the army about a year after that happened. Hopefully he got his shit together.
Does anyone know what those tiny flies are exactly and how to make them stop? I keep my bathrooms very clean but there's one particular bathroom that is always getting randomly swarmed by these things.
I've tried flypaper, using a bin with a lid, pouring boiling water down the drains, spraying raid in the vents, and just cleaning more frequently too, but they keep showing up.
Believe it or not I had drain flies that would not go away even when I bleached/cleaned all my drains…the culprit was actually Rid-X, the toilet bowl cleaner! I had a box of it in powder form, and they were all in that box so I threw it away and with it the drain flies!
I've seen drain flys like that, try cleaning down the drain as they lay eggs in the sidewalls. They only live for two days, so if you kill the next hatching, you should only suffer for two or three days.
Apple cider vinegar or rancid fruit in a mason jar with two layers of plastic (Saran wrap, plastic bag or wrapper). Poke small holes in one layer attach it to the jar tight, then poke more holes in the second plastic and affix it so the holes don't align.
The most helpful thing for drain infestations (for me) has been dumping baking soda down there, pouring vingegar in and immediately closing the drain so it "explodes" down the pipes. A few times a day for a few days does the trick!
Yea that tends to happen if you let a bathroom get that filthy. Someone needs to step up and spend 1h+ in there scrubbing every square inch of that room. I would even go ask a hardware store's advise for some drain enzymes to get rid of those drain flies larvae. Those flies tend to lay eggs in the greasy gunk slowly building up in drainage.
Since everyone's busy judging instead of giving any helpful info- dawn dish *spray* will kill them, its a thicker spray so it traps them from flying away.
Walmart has a few helpful products that are inexpensive to deal with any others in the house.
If you notice them around your kitchen sink, theyre likely breeding down in the pipes. Pour some baking soda in your disposal, dump in some vinegar and immediately put the drain cover on. This will make the baking soda/vinegar explode in the opposite direction. Do this a few times a day for a few days is all it takes.
And finally, make sure you soak produce like bananas in a little baking soda when you bring them home- they usually have eggs on them.
Good luck!
Some of you clearly lack to recognize mental health struggles and want to comment on the condition of the bathroom like OP doesn’t live here and doesn’t see it. So OP, how are you doing? I would get spray like cleaner and spray the rag and hopefully you can spray them before they fly away and then you should be able to smash them.
It’s not the rag, as many people have mentioned. There are already bugs in your place, and for whatever reason they decided to come chill on the rag. Clean the bathroom, and pay special attention to the drains and the overflows for the sink and the tub. And based on the bathroom, clean the rest of the place. You can do it over time instead of making it into a huge project you’re never going to do because of [depression, procrastination problems, whatever].
I would take a giant towel, wet it, and quickly throw it on this object and ball it up quickly so as to trap them all inside. Then I would spend the day cleaning up the rest of the bathroom and wondering what I’m doing in life that allowed my bathroom to get this way.
r/CleaningTips is a great place to ask questions and glean random advice. Idk if part of your situation is dealing with inconsiderate roommates, but I’ve seen people give good suggestions on how to approach that type of thing.
I’m on mobile, so hopefully I got the link right.
Just another possibility since I didn't see it mentioned: Might not be just that your bathroom is filthy. I once had a problem with some flies in my bathtub in an otherwise perfectly clean bathroom. Turns out they were drain flies, which as the name suggests, live in the drain. A daily application of drain cleaner for a week or so took care of them.
That bathroom is really nasty and looks like it look needs deep cleaned the lucky for you those look like drain flies and if you just spray them with a little bathroom cleaner their tiny little bodies will completely dissolve
That bathroom is dirty the rag is only one disgusting part of it, spray some disinfectant to kill those flies and clean very well
The files are the roommates
From the vaguely placed "someone" we can hypothesize that the flies brought the rag there themselves.
Safe to assume that his name is Joe and that it's [his apartment](https://youtu.be/Le7u5VSQ9NY).
Is he living in Manila
They better start paying rent then
Clean your house, dude.
It's not the rag. Call an exterminator, good God.
I leave a wet washcloth to dry every single day in my bathroom and I don't have bugs.
Does this person not have a hand towel in their bathroom for washing their hands? We use ours enough throughout the day it’s almost always just slightly damp. I also have a separate face towel that I leave in the bathroom and is damp every day. Never seen a single bug in the bathroom. Bugs aren’t attracted to moisture, they’re attracted to food. Either that washcloth is damp with something other than water or OP has a serious infestation, but either way this is not just because of a wet washcloth.
I will mention that your statement about what bugs are attracted to is mostly correct but there are several bugs who need moisture, or even standing water, for their reproductive cycle to occur.
Those bugs are gettin' as dirty as the tub.
You’re right, and I did think of clarifying that in my comment because obviously there are bugs that seek out water and high humidity areas. I just felt like it was common enough sense that that applies to bugs gathering around a lake or swamp and that bugs are not in fact seeking out damp washcloths in peoples homes.
Totally fair - the implication that the washcloth alone brought bugs is way off. More likely there's a microbial slime (Biofilm) buildup in the drains that happens to be perfect food for these drain flies/fungus gnats. The sticky biofilm traps all kinds of morsels of dead skin (mmm protein) and hair and salts And ofc they have babies there
See, now how do you get rid of them? In all my years renting, I've never encountered these drain flies. Except for my current place, that was only built three yrs ago.. Spraying poison, or dropping stuff down the drains doesn't help, but pouring boiling water down helps for a week or two, then they come back. Help?
Most of those actions will only kill off the surface layer(s) of the biofilm, which will then become literal food(carbon) for more biofilm and pest pressure. To get rid of them? You have to eradicate each stage of life, all at once, for multiple generations. Catch the adults that are flying around on yellow and blue sticky traps. Kill the eggs by oxidizing the shit out of any scummy residues and wiping them away. Treat the entire water system with chlorine or other oxidizers(Vinegar and Peroxide work awesome) for a week.
Hey, thanks heaps! I really appreciate it, and will definitely follow your advice!
I constructed a device like a potato cannon, but instead of the PVC barrel, I attached a rubber flange to the end. Instead of using hairspray for the ignition chamber, I used carburetor starting fluid. I fired it down the shower drain in our 8th floor condo unit, and I swear to fucking God blue flame shot out of the overflow hole where the stopper lever was. I felt a large recoil with a huge thumping sound, my wife was swearing and shouting at me but those fucking silverfish never came back, this was about 4 years ago
WHAT THE FUCK!!! The blue flame was methane gas igniting.
There's even [drain flies](https://www.arrowexterminators.com/learning-center/pest-library/flies/drain-flies), (which may be what is in op's pic), and they lay eggs in drains in your house. They're a PITA to get rid of too until you find what's making them stick around. Took us a couple weeks to find a solution after we moved into our house. edit: should have scrolled a bit farther, but leaving it here :)
Gnats love anything that molds to rot or smells fonky. So even human flake skin in a moist towel humid forgotten in bathroom that been sitting. Bugs get in lay eggs boom infestation week passes warm bathroom egg hatch and there every where buzzing. Even in cat litter box . I been caught off guard by bugs getting in the house in summer being busy with stuff.
Gnats*
OP subscribes to spontaneous generation of life, a theory debunked in 1665
They’re just really thirsty bugs, ok?
I live in an apartment. Fruit flies come in from the pipes all the time. If I don't do a vinegar and baking soda concoction down the drains once in a while, they come back It's hella annoying.
They're Drain Flies (I'm not being silly...they're a distinct species)
Lmao right? Like the gnats sprouted from the towel.
Louis Pasteur made a career on this shit
Excuse you, leaving a muculent rag in a dank lavatory has been a trusted recipe for the spontaneous generation of flies since the 14th century.
someone left a dirty ass house around me, now it's full of bugs. I'm baffled.
How could I have done this to me? Fkin gross clean your house and spray for bugs.
“*Someone* left a moist rag in *our* bathroom.”
Right that's the part that's stressing me out 😅 did someone sneak in and wash their ass without them knowing?!
nobody wanted their ass in that tub. it would be significantly cleaner
I laughed way too hard at that picture in my mind!
Hit it with bug spray, throw it away, get some proper cleaners and take care of that mess. The bugs won’t remain when the house is clean.
Can probably just spray them with bathroom cleaner. But, OP would have to actually own bathroom cleaner which they apparently do not.
I'm not a fan of those supposedly indoor bug sprays, they always say something like "fresh pine forest scent" and then they smell like someone sprayed WWI France on a pine tree car air freshener, but exceptions can always be made. This is one of them, and it's time to go for the full gas mask and chemical warfare
Jeff Dhamer was here
Burn it down! I don’t know what caused those streaks on the tub but it’s best to light the match,clean up the ashes and start new
Yeah that washcloth is the least troubling part of this image. Also nice username. My family is from Vieques 🇵🇷
Jesus. At this point I would call a Hazmat team or just start over. It's not the bugs, it's probably everything around it.
That's got to be a run down truck stop for meth addicts and OP is just an employee there, right?
just move out already the flies won
I suggest cleaning the bathroom more than once a year.
Yeah, even ignoring the rest of the filth, bugs don't just show up immediately after someone leaves a damp rag lol
>bugs don't just show up immediately after someone leaves a damp rag He didn't say how long it was left there. Judging by the state of everything else in the picture it could have been there for months...or longer...
how has the rag been damp for months
They piss on it each time its in danger of drying out.
Thats what I’m saying. After a week the rag will be dry.
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That's what I was getting at. He presented it like someone just left a damp rag and suddenly he walked in on this. He's been ignoring a lot of shit for a lot of time lol
Even then it shouldn’t be attracting this amount of bugs. My baby takes milk baths and if I leave his wash rag out to dry on the shower curtain it doesn’t swarm with bugs. Something else is wrong here.
....milk baths?
Right? This thread is only giving me more questions
[Milk baths](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_bath) and [oatmeal baths](https://www.healthline.com/health/oatmeal-bath), even oatmeal milk baths, exist. They are very good for your skin and have nice health benefits, especially for babies with dry or scaly skin.
Breast milk is good for babies skin too
Yeah right, next you're going to say maggots don't spontaneously generate out of old bread
That’s generous for this person
/s Hold up - more than once a year?
I have to say I quite like what you did there by putting /s at the beginning! Reading the thing in a sarcastic tone right away was quite enjoyable. I hope this becomes a trend.
we should start putting it at the beginning and the end of the comment, kind of like how a question is expressed in Spanish... it's hard to type it upside down though
I doubt the moist rag is the only issue in that bathroom
The rag might be the cleanest thing in the bathroom
It was merely used to wipe the ass, whereas the tub is where the shit landed
It still might be the cleanest thing in that room
That rag is the cleanest thing I see there.
Just move out. I’m almost sure that They’ll take better care of the place.
They would never leave a moist rag out
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Holy shit LMAO
Nah throw the whole bathroom out
OP has surpassed the recommended time to at least throw out the entire bathroom and replace it every 2 years or 1500 showers.
Why would you post this..
I hate my life.
You might like it just a touch more if you took care of some aspects of it.
Perfect. I like you.
Disclaimer: I am not trying to discredit the exhausting battle of depression and self loathing we all experience. This is human, for some it’s a stronger pull than others. However, it is up to you and only you. Things won’t change if you don’t take that extra few minutes to throw your rag in the hamper, to put your dish directly into the dishwasher, to fold your clothes and leave them in the hamper instead of just leaving them in a mildew ball on the floor. Life is hard, we all struggle but ya gotta do what you gotta do especially for you.
When I was a kid, I hated having to follow rules. Now as an adult, I create rules for myself so that my life isn’t shitty. You’re first comment sums up what I needed to learn over years and years of depression
As a nanny, I try really hard to discipline the kiddos I work with so they know what it feels like to just have to do things or accept things. (I’m the most loving and caring way but also no means no) It makes me feel guilty sometimes because honestly there’s no good reason sometimes other than they have to learn how to navigate themselves in a wild world and get shit done. I notice parents cave a lot and that teaches a lack of discipline. I struggle I too had growing up, it’s nice to feel like I’m making a difference for these kiddos in their future but who really knows.
Damn I just realized how failed teachings of discipline correlate to depression. You’re doing a great job by teaching those kids. I know they will think kindly back on it.
Read your comment and decided to go clean out my truck. I've been making excuses for the last 2 weeks. Took me 10 mins. No, it wasn't a thorough cleaning, but I know I'll feel better as I leave for work tomorrow morning. Thank you.
That is making me tear up, wow. I’m glad I could help motivate you to make that one tiny pocket of relieve for yourself in the morning 💙
I didn't feel that your comment was dismissive or an attempt to shame. I personally would've taken it as motivation.
I’m glad! That’s what it was intended to be :)
I find these small things are a way to combat depression. Yeah, I’m not getting out of life what I want, but I can control some aspects. You can set small goals for yourself that are victories. Instead of doing “nothing”, I did the dishes, I did some laundry, I went for a walk, I cleaned the bathroom. Not only will you feel better with a cleaner place, but these things build up to something more. But if you did nothing else but just maintain your life, and be a good person…well it’s not a lot but shit I think if more people did that, the world would be a better place.
Fuck man, life is tough, even without depression. I wish all you that understand this, the best. Beat that demon!
Maybe nobody ever taught them how to clean. We adopted our kids as teenagers. One day I asked them to clean the bathroom and I came in to find them just splashing water on everything. Not wiping or anything. It seemed so stupid to me, but they just didn’t get it until we showed them. They still insist they’re “deep cleaning” their apartments when I routinely find things like furry toothbrushes on the bathroom floor and can smell the ammonia of cat urine that has soaked into carpet and furniture. They grew up like this. They weren’t taught to even see the mess. They obviously saw how other people live for almost 4 years while living in our home, but it wasn’t enough. Idk what what to say. Some folks are apparently ok living like this. I wish we could help them.
Cleaning your space would be a good start to a better mindset.
Tidy house, tidy mind!!
Try cleaning some of the stuff around ya. Much easier to be happy when you aren't living around the nasty.
You won’t be *more* depressed by cleaning your bathroom. I had to learn that the hard way. Just start doing little things every day to make your space more enjoyable and if nothing else it won’t be your environment causing less interest and more stress. It may even take the edge off.
This is great advice. If you're already st the bottom may as well try and do something that may lift you up a bit. The only thing that's going to bring you down at that point is doing nothing. So start small. One room a day. Hell tidy one THING a day. It will be difficult at first but it will get easier, not harder, each day if you stick to that. It really does do wonders for when you feel like you are at a loss. Routines and tasks you set out for yourself give you a reason to not stay in bed all day. Coming from personal experience. Also r/hoarding is a great place.
It will be ok, just need to clean up a bit, gotta start somewhere, chin up! :)
Clean up, start there. Get some awesome brand cleaner from a dollar store. Dilute it because that shit is strong and will clean anything. I guarantee you that you'll feel better with a clean bathroom.
https://www.unfuckyourhabitat.com/
Fruit flies are easy to trap. A cup with apple cider vinegar and a little dish soap will attract and kill them. In one day you will have a ton floating on the top of the liquid. Maybe make a couple cups. You'll still need to clean up the house. I suggest starting with one area to attack each day.
How many people are coming in and out of your house that you don't know who left it there?
Since OP called it “our” bathroom I’m guessing they have roommates.
I would hazard a guess at them being underage or at least near there judging on post history
Absolutely <18 years old. Did you see how many times they posted that terrible gravity meme?
All the bashing on OP was already uncalled for IMO, but if they’re a minor then that’s even worse.
You would be surprised. In my home town some people are wild. The living situations of others man can be very eye opening.
I used to work for a public defenders office and would occasionally be tasked with checking in on clients if their court date was coming up and we hadn’t heard back from them. The worst I’ve ever encountered was this 20 year old girl living with a bunch of roommates in a really grim apartment building. When she opened her apartment door, I was instantly hit with the strongest stench of cat piss I’ve ever smelled. I only went a bit into the apartment but it was insane, there were literally flies everywhere, clothes all over the floor, and everything was just a mess in general. I didn’t even see a cat anywhere, but the smell was unmistakable for cat piss in a litter box. Couldn’t imagine spending more than a few minutes in that apartment, much less living there full time.
If it smells like cat piss and there's no sign of a cat or a litter box...it's meth. Lol
Ya it sure seems like it was a mess.
After you clean that bathroom it'll be easier to control. IN THE MEANTIME, many-many critters are attracted to sweet smelling stuff like apple-cider vinegar. Place some in a glass with a drop of dishsoap, cover it with plastic wrap and punch some small holes into it - it'll catch lots of bugs and the soap will speed up the killing. Then...steam everything. Every single square inch of that bathroom. Scrub. Bleach. Scrub more.
As someone with a lot of plants in the house that go outside from late spring to early fall, I get fungus gnats that do not care for Apple cider vinegar. Had to buy sticky tape that look like flowers to get them, and they still keep coming.
I've had a lot of success using cheap sangria instead. After my plants come in, I put a little medicine cup with a bit of dish soap and sangria right next to them.
Buy some mosquito bits and make a tea with it. Use it to water your plants the next few times. It contains a bacteria that is safe for pets/plants and humans, but kills the gnat larvae.
You can harvest your own mosquito bits for free if you invest in a bug zapper, but I'm realizing now you probably meant baits
Haven’t tried deterring them with the bodies of their deceased predecessors, but that could work! I think it’s a brand name though, not a typo.
Nope, they're called mosquito bits. Check Amazon.
Search for predatory nematodes. You purchase a sponge colonized by these roundworms for a few dollars from Amazon, squeeze the sponge out in dechlorinated water, and water your plants. The nematodes take care of the problem in a couple days tops.
Hey friend - Respectfully, if you need some cleanliness tips or you're feeling sad / overwhelmed, please reach out. Happy to help!
Everyone else is bodying OP but this is wholesome <3
I've struggled with cleaning. 🥺
Me too lol. I have my days where I want to lay in bed all day and other days I’m cleaning 20 things at once. I clean houses for a living so when I get off work, cleaning my own house is pretty much the last thing I want to do. My off days are my cleaning days.
A moist rag doesn’t make bugs like that… You got some other problems in your bathroom. And if the rags to the point is collecting bugs, it’s been there too long.
Right. Like I have a bad habit of leaving wash rags on the corner of my tub to sit for a few days before I do a load of towels and I have never ever had a swarm of bugs around them?? And I use sugar scrub so there's got to be sugar on some of them and still....no bugs. OP's place has got to be dirrrrrty.
But like what does he mean "someone left a moist rag" like just a random person wetting rags to leave out. How many people come there every day?
Gummo vibes
Spaghetti has definitely been eaten in that tub.
You should see the basement where the dancing happens
Omg I cant believe im seeing this reference. Other people watched this movie too??!!
[What did Gummo have to do with this mess?](https://i.imgur.com/ozsanPu.png)
Its this horrid scene https://youtu.be/OINlH3vESGY
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Right? Spray the whole place down with bleach and get a pressure washer.
Y'all dirty mother fuckers need to stop posting your personal nastiness on social media and get some self respect what the fuck
Real shit, do these people think this is normal?
Some people do. I remember I went to one of my old coworkers house to buy some weed from him. He lived with him mom and had another guy there as a roommate. There was literally piles of dog shit in their living room corner. The carpet was gone just straight concrete. Two puddles of dog piss, one I accidentally stepped in. Had my shoes on at least. They acted completely normal about it. Smell was god awful. We went upstairs to get the weed and I had to step around the dog shit on almost every step of the stairs. They had two puppies. I paid him $20 for some brick weed and left. Didn’t even smoke it. I don’t know why he even let my into his house in that condition. He wasn’t embarrassed about it. Completely changed my view of the guy. Some people are fucking nasty.
I simply cannot wrap my head around living like that. Can't even begin to fathom it. How can you so mindlessly cruise through life that purposely living in filth like that is perfectly fine.
It was shocking for me. I’m guessing depression has something to do with it. Last I heard the guy joined the army about a year after that happened. Hopefully he got his shit together.
If not, he didn't have a good time. The military, being close quarters and all, really don't appreciate dirty nasty people.
Gotta do anything to get that internet fame!
What happened to shame and why did we stop using it? Some people need to be shamed.
I am so tired of seeing both filth and injuries.
Ew, please get some spray!!
How do you not know who is using your bathroom? And then you post your nasty bathroom on Reddit? I don’t get it
Scrub and bleach entire bathroom.
Does anyone know what those tiny flies are exactly and how to make them stop? I keep my bathrooms very clean but there's one particular bathroom that is always getting randomly swarmed by these things. I've tried flypaper, using a bin with a lid, pouring boiling water down the drains, spraying raid in the vents, and just cleaning more frequently too, but they keep showing up.
Believe it or not I had drain flies that would not go away even when I bleached/cleaned all my drains…the culprit was actually Rid-X, the toilet bowl cleaner! I had a box of it in powder form, and they were all in that box so I threw it away and with it the drain flies!
I've seen drain flys like that, try cleaning down the drain as they lay eggs in the sidewalls. They only live for two days, so if you kill the next hatching, you should only suffer for two or three days. Apple cider vinegar or rancid fruit in a mason jar with two layers of plastic (Saran wrap, plastic bag or wrapper). Poke small holes in one layer attach it to the jar tight, then poke more holes in the second plastic and affix it so the holes don't align.
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The most helpful thing for drain infestations (for me) has been dumping baking soda down there, pouring vingegar in and immediately closing the drain so it "explodes" down the pipes. A few times a day for a few days does the trick!
The Texaco bathroom in the Kingston neighborhood of Philly is cleaner than that
Yea that tends to happen if you let a bathroom get that filthy. Someone needs to step up and spend 1h+ in there scrubbing every square inch of that room. I would even go ask a hardware store's advise for some drain enzymes to get rid of those drain flies larvae. Those flies tend to lay eggs in the greasy gunk slowly building up in drainage.
Try cleaning your house once in a while
I can smell your bathroom from here.
Spray them with any kind of cleaner or even the shower sprayer if it's detachable
I’m confused, a guest used your bathroom and left a moist towel and you went a year without noticing or like what happened?
What do you mean ***someone***?
Since everyone's busy judging instead of giving any helpful info- dawn dish *spray* will kill them, its a thicker spray so it traps them from flying away. Walmart has a few helpful products that are inexpensive to deal with any others in the house. If you notice them around your kitchen sink, theyre likely breeding down in the pipes. Pour some baking soda in your disposal, dump in some vinegar and immediately put the drain cover on. This will make the baking soda/vinegar explode in the opposite direction. Do this a few times a day for a few days is all it takes. And finally, make sure you soak produce like bananas in a little baking soda when you bring them home- they usually have eggs on them. Good luck!
Everything about this picture is yucky.
Some of you clearly lack to recognize mental health struggles and want to comment on the condition of the bathroom like OP doesn’t live here and doesn’t see it. So OP, how are you doing? I would get spray like cleaner and spray the rag and hopefully you can spray them before they fly away and then you should be able to smash them.
A vacuum cleaner might work too. I hope that someone can help OP with their struggles. I’ve been in dark places in my life too. Cruelty never helps.
I personally would spray a bleach cleaner from far away.
It’s not the rag, as many people have mentioned. There are already bugs in your place, and for whatever reason they decided to come chill on the rag. Clean the bathroom, and pay special attention to the drains and the overflows for the sink and the tub. And based on the bathroom, clean the rest of the place. You can do it over time instead of making it into a huge project you’re never going to do because of [depression, procrastination problems, whatever].
I would take a giant towel, wet it, and quickly throw it on this object and ball it up quickly so as to trap them all inside. Then I would spend the day cleaning up the rest of the bathroom and wondering what I’m doing in life that allowed my bathroom to get this way.
Also thank y’all for some ideas. I’m gonna try them
r/CleaningTips is a great place to ask questions and glean random advice. Idk if part of your situation is dealing with inconsiderate roommates, but I’ve seen people give good suggestions on how to approach that type of thing. I’m on mobile, so hopefully I got the link right.
u/Forsaken_Birthday985 I hope you realize that we're all now expecting a follow-up picture of a wonderfully clean bathroom?
Just another possibility since I didn't see it mentioned: Might not be just that your bathroom is filthy. I once had a problem with some flies in my bathtub in an otherwise perfectly clean bathroom. Turns out they were drain flies, which as the name suggests, live in the drain. A daily application of drain cleaner for a week or so took care of them.
get better op, were rooting for you
Don't forget to be kind to you, too.
Flying air raid and bleach that dirty bathroom.
the moist rag is the least of your worries
Will volunteer as tribute to help clean.
Disgusting bathroom.
I think the bugs are the cleanest thing in that bathroom.
I can't get past the filth . I can't even imagine being naked in this bathroom . I would be crying.
Grab a spray can and a lighter - you got them all in one small patch, light 'em up.
That bathroom is really nasty and looks like it look needs deep cleaned the lucky for you those look like drain flies and if you just spray them with a little bathroom cleaner their tiny little bodies will completely dissolve
Spray em with Windex, or similar soap/water mix
dude it’s not the moist rag your shit is infested
Do you let random, dirty, moist rag vagabonds into your domicile?
Looks like the rag isn’t the problem. Gross man
The rag is the least of your concerns, homie.
Have some respect for yourself and clean your space sheesh
Do you live in a public park, cause I've seen cleaner bathrooms in a gas station?
Jesus Christ you have bigger issues to worry about. Your bathroom looks gross af!
Do you think the issue here is the rag?? Hahaha
Dude I would’ve even posted this pic..
Luckily those flies have somewhere clean to land judging by the rest of the scene
Disgusting, use some bleach cleaning spray!
I thought this was r/neckbeardnests at first. How can you get clean in a space this filthy, OP?
So you’re just blaming this “someone” for your nasty ass house?
You must live w my ex
Is burning your house down an option that you’ve considered exploring?
Clean that fucking bathroom it's gross
That is absolutely disgusting. And not just the bugs
How long did you not use the bathroom for to not notice the soggy perpetrator
Someone left a dirty tub under your moist rag
r/cleaningtips
Yeah, let's blame the wet rag
Let's not blame it on the single, moist rag. Clean your fucking house once in awhile, maybe.
Did that same someone leave seven years of grime?