Students eating at cafeterias on campus may have noticed flies buzzing around their food.

This problem persists as temperatures drop and fall arrives, said Richard Fritz, residential dining director for Housing and Dining.

Fritz said it’s a challenge to contain the flies in certain times of the year when the doors are constantly opening and closing in an open air market.

“There is no physical way to eliminate the presence of flies in certain seasons of the year,” Fritz said. “The reality is that we do the ultimate best to maintain a proper service environment.”

Older facilities, like the Grant cafeterias, are harder to maintain, Fritz said. He said he believes the facilities are impeccably clean.

Freshman English major Ron Lee said he thinks the flies are a big problem. He usually eats at the Grant cafeteria.

“It seems like it’s easy for it to be solved,” Lee said. “It’s easy to get rid of flies.”

The health department routinely inspects the school cafeterias, Fritz said.

“We do above and beyond what the minimum expectations are,” Fritz said. “All our staff wears protective gloves. We rotate foods regularly. We make sure food is under the sneeze guard. It’s done very effectively.”

Ashley Liggins, freshman elementary education major, lives in Douglas. She said she doesn’t have a fly problem there, but has noticed it at other cafeterias like Lincoln.

“It’s pretty clean,” Liggins said. “I don’t know why they have flies. They have people who clean the tables constantly.”

Flies come into buildings because the temperature outside is getting colder, Fritz said.

There is technology available to help kill flies in the cafeterias. However, Fritz said with that technology, there’s the possibility of having a dead bug in food.

Fritz said he wishes there was a way to eliminate flies completely, but he said every restaurant has the same problem.

“Jeepers, we could have our staff flashing their arms constantly [to shoo flies away],” Fritz said. “But there has to be a balance.”