Drain flies? Or alternative bug ID & plan
I am prepping a vacant unit right now. (Full disclosure: first-time landlord, bought property in Feb 2020)
Before COVID the previous tenants mentioned ants. They were small and localized to bathroom sink. I didn’t have a chance to f/u as they weren’t especially bothered by them (prev prop mgr didn’t address them) and it didn’t qualify as a “maintenance emergency” during early COVID restrictions on entering an occupied unit. But now I’m in and the ants are there, here and there.
But what’s more prominent are small black bugs-flies perhaps? I’ve not actually seen them fly but I think they have wings. They congregate (small numbers, don’t misunderstand) by bathroom sink, tub, and windows throughout unit. For example, in other rooms of apartment they were initially hardly noticed by me. But when I started painting—-many a small black bug met its untimely death in a fresh coat of paint. (They’re so small as to be like a speck of dirt so i can’t see them in the finished paint job at all, I just know I brushed over them while cutting in!)
I googled and wondered if these could be drain flies? It’s just that the photos online are all super close ups and I can’t tell if my little specks-of-dirt-like bugs are the moth-like looking drain flies. Anyone have a layman’s photo of these bugs in real life by a sink? Experience with how often drain flies actually do take flight? Anyone have experience with drain flies or an alternative theory for the identification of this kind of bug? Thank you!!!