FORT Koffee Klatch

[myrosiedog]

Originally Posted by prhoshay

For the past 2 days, I think I smell cigarette smoke in my house...which is weird. I have been the only person here, and I have no neighbors on one side, and a non-smoker on the other side. I abhor cigarette smoking, so I find the smell it easily identifiable.

A couple of weeks ago, I went through about a week of a fly invasion in my house. I'm talking about killing, easily, 40-50/day, when they would migrate to the closed windows. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, they disappeared. It reminded me of the old movie Amityville Horror, I think it was.

I hate weird, unusual occurrences of this nature.

Shay, we had a fly infestation like that and found out they were coming from an uncapped sewer pipe inside one of the walls.

I've also heard that many times with a ghost, that you can smell things like cigar smoke and perfume.

[Google]

 

[Mantenna]

Don't worry, Shay. I've had some pretty unexplainable, frightening things happen around me over the years, but I don't think you have anything "supernatural" happening here. Flies lay eggs, and then there's a mass hatching of the disgusting little things. The reason it's odd is because it usually happens outside, but I've seen it happen at our cabin many times.

As far as cigarette smoke, some of my neighbors go out and smoke after dark, and I can always smell it from inside the house.

[prhoshay]

These flies that I was killing were not small or young, by any means. They were the big nasty adults. I'd get them mostly killed off through the day, I seemed to be on top of the problem at night, only to have to start all over again the next morning, with multitudes in the windows when I got up. I didn't use bug spray since I have the kitties, but I did use a bottle of alcohol and water that I had mixed up for another purpose. That would wet them down, and I could get to the nasty things and kill them. Once I knocked down quite a number of them from the kitchen door window, and saw them making a crawling bee-line for underneath the kitchen door leading to the outside. Like I said, after about a week, week and a half, the flies disappeared just as strangely as they had shown up. Nothing else had really changed...as in I did no additional sealing or anything.

I've not seen any neighbors living near me smoking, actually. I thought maybe the guy next door was having one of his annual birthday parties, but that was not the case, either.

I don't mind "strange things" happening, but I've become more accustomed to different types of strange things all together. I just want my "expected weirdness" back if I'm going to be stuck with the unexplainable!

[myrosiedog]

Hairspray on flying insects immobilizes them and you can then get rid of them.

We too were seeing the mature adult flies and they were actually coming out of the electric socket. Dh took it off the wall and they flew out in droves. We actually talked to an exterminator who put a thingy in the wall to look and said that when the kitchen had been remodeled it looked like they had changed sewer pipes and never capped the old one. We had to rip a whole in the wall and cap the pipe to get rid of the flies. But our infestation lasted a lot longer than yours. It was so nasty and I too felt like we were living the Amityville Horror while it lasted.

ETA: we bought the house after the kitchen remodel.
I doubt dh would have left an uncapped sewer pipe.

[Ellen]

Cigarette smoke triggers allergic/asthmatic-type reactions in me, and I can smell it a mile away, too. I live in a pet-free, smoke-free apartment complex -- if my windows are open and someone goes to the sidewalk just off the property for a smoke, I can smell it. It was really bad, though, when the downstairs neighbors had guests who thought they could get away with smoking in the apartment and blowing the smoke out the windows. Luckily, management was on them FAST!

[prhoshay]

Luckily, this is the only time I've been bothered with the fly infestation, and I've been in this house for over 10 years. It was just creepy, looking back.

[queenb]

Originally Posted by prhoshay

For the past 2 days, I think I smell cigarette smoke in my house...which is weird. I have been the only person here, and I have no neighbors on one side, and a non-smoker on the other side. I abhor cigarette smoking, so I find the smell it easily identifiable.
.

Shay, before you decide it's a ghost, I'll be the practical voice here and tell you to be very careful before you decide there's "no way" it could be an actual flesh and blood person. Not to scare you, but watch out for signs anyone is coming into your house. There are weirdos out there! Of course it's possible that the non smoker had a smoking visitor, or that someone was at the property on the other side for whatever reason. I'm hypersensitive to the odor too, and I don't allow smoking in my house. But often when my sister or her daughters come by, I can smell a whiff of smoke in the house--whether it's residual from them (yes, they do bathe, but the smell does stick to everything, sorry smokers) or the wind was just-right and brought it into the house when they pulled up. Back when I smoked ages ago, I would have never believed it was that smelly.

[prhoshay]

I haven't even given any credence to the "it's a ghost" line of thinking....not that I don't believe in spirits, because I do...but it is strange. I have checked all doors and made sure they were secure. The smell lingered from one afternoon to another, and then some. I really need to do a walk-around outside my house. I also know that seizures can be proceeded by strange smells, but I have not found myself awakening in confusion over why/where I am. No unexplained injuries or soreness. This has just been bizarre. I'm not scared, just curious.

[myrosiedog]

Have heard from all my Florida friends. School started yesterday and today they have a hurricane day because of Hurricane or Trop. Storm Fay. Hope everyone in the path is safe and hunkered down.

Queenb, I hear that GA and SC are going to get the remnants of Fay on Thur. and Fri and get a lot of much needed rain. I sure hope so. We need it as I know you do too.

Shay, that is bizarre, but I'm sure there is a rational explanation. What about your mail? Perhaps your mail carrier is a smoker and it's on the mail you brought into the house?
Or is on something else you brought into the house from elsewhere?

Sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery: The case of the mysterious smoker.

[Rattus]

Shay, I have had experiences similar to yours. Every once in a while, I swear I can smell someone smoking, which is not a particular bother to me with respect to the smoking but a huge bother if someone is on my property (I am quite territorial and extremely fond of my personal space). I've checked everywhere, and nothing. This has happened a number of times and I have come to the conclusion that there is just something out there that smells like a smoker (a plant, the wind blowing a particular direction, something like that).

The flies are a different and more unpleasant story. I can home one day to find the window in the back door covered with huge black flies. We had no idea why until a couple of months later we discovered the desiccated corpse of an enormous dead rat in the crawlspace under our bedroom *shudder*. So not to freak you out or anything, but you might want to take a flashlight and go a'hunting.

We have subsequently moved from that house, and if I ever find the same thing in this house, we're moving again.