Flies are taking over

[JohnRoss]

Anyone else noticed a plague of house flies this year? Walking on food and us with their nasty bug ridden sticky feet pads. Despite having a blue light zapper unit, not that effective mostly catches moths, and several glue paper strips hanging up still they come! I have noticed that our plum tree, which has masses of fruit this year, seems to have attracted them and wasps which get drunk, even more dangerous been stung twice this year already, as the fruit is fermenting and we cannot pick it fast enough. A lot of the sprays you get now seem less effective than they used to be!.............................JR

[Théière]

I prefer the window and door mesh solution, those light zappers blow flies to bits scattering body parts everywhere [+o(]

Good O'l Johnson's raid never seems to get any weaker, has em breakdancing in seconds [:)]

[Frenchie]

[quote user="JohnRoss"]Anyone else noticed a plague of house flies this year? [/quote]

Y    E   S 

And it s bl** dy annoying !!! [6]

[JohnRoss]

Not just flies but moths as well. Our cat likes to eat those and leaves a terrible mess with black powder marks where he has smeared them up the wall with his paw. Not had these large black/dark brown powdery moths in such numbers before. The whole balance of nature seems to be different this year. I have noticed fewer lizards and toads about of late and not so many bats around as usual so is it a chicken and egg situation?...............................................JR

[Théière]

What you have chickens and eggs as well[Www]

[Benjamin]

I wondered where they'd all gone to.  [:P]

[JohnRoss]

Does anyone sings this little song anymore.
My teacher used to sing it when I was at college, strange bloke!.....................................JR



Where do flies go in the wintertime?
Do they go to gay Paree?

When they've finished buzzing round our eggs and ham
When they've finished settling on our jam

Do they fly like swallows every year,
to some distant far off clime?

Tell me, tell me
Where do flies go in the wintertime?

 

The words seem to have changed with time a bit. See http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.mus-an5631477-s4-e

[Théière]

I don't know John-Ross but the midges never leave the west coast of Scotland that's for sure [:)]

[Pierre ZFP]

I've given up cans of Raid for an electric tennis racket thingy.  Now I've go tthe hang of it, no fly is safe within my reach.  A very satisfying BANG as they feel the full force of my electrifying volley

[JohnRoss]

Hé oui c'est une arme de destruction massive! Les insectes volants n'ont bien se tenir! But the one I saw must have had flat batteries as it only paralyzed and did not kill. À bas des mouches!.......................................JR

[nectarine]

yes it's been about ten days now when we are inundated with house flies. I had thought it was cluster fly but these flies are outside the house (in the grass) and are trying to get in the house. We have net meshes over the windows, flypapers, bamboo door curtains and everything you can think of but the little blighters still manage to get in.

What DOESN'T work are those cans of 'Barrage D'Insectes' that you spray over doors and windows and which repel the flies. Nope, they fly away, land on your head while you are spraying and then fly back - that stuff doesn't work.

You can't eat outside at ours as you are perpetually swatting away flies. As soon as you sit down they come out of nowhere, dozens of them!

We have RedTop fly traps in the garden which are getting very full,

but where are these flies coming from? Our local supermarket has run out of flypapers and window stickers and the cashier told me of a gite owner whose guests left after four days (booked for a fortnight) as the flies were so bad.

So, solutions please and are we the only people with a fly problem this bad?

[AnOther]

One thing which did worry me a bit before moving to France was the stories I'd heard about flies, such as I'm reading now in fact, because they drive me nuts, but I have to say though that in the 2 years we've been here I've been pleasantly surprised at the absence of them and can't really say that it is much worse than it was in UK, certainly numberwise. Types, particularly the biting buggers, is something else !

I wonder how much of a localised micro problem it is though because whilst we enjoy a relatively virtually fly free life our nearest neighbours, who are only some 3/400m away as the crow flies, seem inundated and the sticky strips they have hanging are thick with them.

[JohnRoss]

Probably depends on what you have around you like lots of cow poo here, leaky fosses and the like! Not aware being bitten so much as in the first few years so maybe my auto-immune system is adapting. Rotting fruit does not help and lots of that about this year................................................JR

[AnOther]

[quote user="JohnRoss"]Probably depends on what you have around you like lots of cow poo here, leaky fosses and the like! Not aware being bitten so much as in the first few years so maybe my auto-immune system is adapting. Rotting fruit does not help and lots of that about this year................................................JR[/quote]True but not much of any of that around us and in fact if anyone has a smelly fosse it's me at the moment because I've partially excavated mine to do some remedial work and plumb in another toilet waste.

[nectarine]

so what remedies do other people have? Killing them is easy, it's stopping the buggers coming into your house or even keeping them at a distance which is the problem!

They are in mating season, so in a bit of a frenzy and ignoring all the repellent sprays ... so has anybody found anything that works?

[AnOther]

Reputedly Dr Livingstone the explorer shaved his head and had a giant spider tattooed on it. Not necessarily a problem for some of us follically challenged men but a bit radical for the ladies [blink]

I suppose you could try drawing one on a shower cap to see it it works but do remember to take it off before going shopping [:D]

[gosub]

"yes it's been about ten days now when we are inundated with house

flies. I had thought it was cluster fly but these flies are outside the

house (in the grass) and are trying to get in the house."

If these flies are in the grass, then I would have thought that they were cluster flies.

[maude]

When we moved in some 7 long years ago,we were infaested in one end of ,ouse with flies.A smoke type canister saw the end of them,but what a disgusting job vaccing up the remains.Since then, in clement weather we are covered or have been in flies on the outside

walls(mainly) On the same part.Obviously we have had them inside the fly screens also,in small numbers.Last year i coated the outside exposed roof spars and anything else with gelcoat xylophene!!none since-inside or out.We do find the barrier sprays(kapo) do work to stop the majority of the crawly "eyebrow" centipedes.We are NOT going back to the ,orrible dangly fly papers.It may be somewhatprimitive here but draw the line at just post war living until our escape. Maude

[JohnRoss]

 Nothing wrong with life just after the war by Jove. Fly papers, no fridges just meat safes in an outside wall, nit nurse, 1/3 of a pint of milk a day at school plus spoonful of malt, snake belt buckles, I-Spy club, ABC minors, ration books, Vera Lynn, Billy  Cotton, Ted Ray, Eagle comic, Dan Dare, family joint for 10 shillings and six pence, dad turning the air-raid shelter into a garden shed, Beeb Beeb Ceeb Light programme and Home Service, Radio Newsreel, Childrens Hour, Larry the lamb, Journey into Space, Uncle Mac, wonderful times........................................JR

PS Fulgator strips seem to work 

[nectarine]

[quote user="maude"].Last year i coated the outside exposed roof spars and anything else with gelcoat xylophene!!none since-inside or out. Maude[/quote]

This sounds promising, can you tell me what product you used, a brand name perhaps?

Many thanks

[Renaud]

When Douglas Jardine was public enemy no ! in OZ for leading the 'bodyline' ashes series, he was fielding near the boundry and getting barracked.

During a quiet spell he slapped away a fly. A voice came from the crowd.

"And another thing Jardine, leave our flies alone."

[Jonzjob]

We had 2 flies here today so I can sympathise with you all. Terrible init![:-))]

I too have a eletrifical raquet and it's one of my favorite toys, but I don't seen to get the practice with it, not that I need it really 'cause I got both of the barstuards today!

I supose we will be inundated with a couple more tomorrow [+o(][geek][+o(] Domage!

[JohnRoss]

This says it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Gm5khHlXM&feature=related ..............JR

[EdF]

This was an email circulated to me from N.America. Perhaps worth a try..??[8-|]

Someone emailed me this information.  Don’t know if it works, but might be worth trying if you have a problem with flies.

We went with some out of town friends to Sweety Pies on Sunday for breakfast, and we sat in the enclosed patio section beside the house. We happened to notice a couple of zip lock baggies (polythene bags with the sliding sealing 'zip') pinned to a post and a wall. The bags were half filled with water, each contained 4 pennies, and they were zipped shut. Naturally we were curious! Ms Sweety told us that these baggies kept the flies away! So naturally we were even more curious! We actually watched some flies come in the open window, stand around on the window sill, and then fly out again. And there were no flies in the eating area! This morning I checked this out on Google. Below are comments on this fly control idea. I’m now a believer! More comments not included here were about pet dogs and fly problems. Zip-lock water bags Sue says: Many people swear that a zip-lock bag filled half-way with water and attached over entry-ways will repel flies. No one yet knows how or why it works, but there is speculation that it has something to do with the way the moving water refracts light. If you have tried this please use the comments form at the bottom of the page to share your results with the rest of us. ann Says: October 5th, 2008 at 5:51 pm I did tried the ziplock bag and pennies this weekend. I have a horse trailer with full LQ (living quarters?). The flys were very bad this weekend while I was camping. I put the baggie with pennies above the door of the LQ. NOT ONE FLY came in the trailer. The horse trailer part had many. Not sure why it works but it does!!!!!!! Danielle Martin Says: September 20th, 2008 at 8:43 pm Fill a ziplock bag with water and 5 or 6 pennies and hang it in the problem area. In my case it was a particular window in my home. It had a slight but significant passage way for insects.Every since I have done that, it has kept flies and wasps away. Some say, that wasps and flies mistake the bag for some sort of other insect nest and are threatened by this. maggie Says: June 7th, 2009 at 11:40 am I swear by the plastic bag of water trick I have them on side porch ( our house entry) and all around the basement door. We saw these in Northeast Mo at an Amish grocery store & have used them since. They say it works because a fly sees a reflection & won’t come around. Just DJ Says: May 16th, 2009 at 7:25 pm Regarding the science behind zip log bags of water? My research found that each of the millions of molecules of water presents its own prism effect and given that flies have a lot of eyes, to them it’s like a zillion disco balls reflecting light, colors and movement in a dizzying manner. When you figure that flies are basically prey for many other bugs, animals, birds, etc., they simply won’t take the risk of being around that much perceived action. I moved to a rural area and thought these “hillbillies” were just yanking my city boy chain but I tried it, worked immediately! We went from hundreds of flies to seeing the occasional one, but he don’t hang around long.

[Jonzjob]

Well, this lot don't rubbish it so we will try it?  After all it don't cost much do it?

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/flies.asp