Flies

[Happy Expat]

No, not the trouser kind! What earthly use are they in the grand scheme of things apart from providing the odd reptile or two with a snack? They irritate animals, annoy humans and around here we have some that give a very painful bite.

Well - any ideas?

Bob & Jane (47)

[Lori]

Don't forget the mess they make of the windows ... just finished cleaning all the yellow dots from them. Since the heat wave has started, we simply can't leave the windows closed - open windows means flies galore and that means window washing frequently.

I can think of no good use for the flies. That is one of the nice things about the winter months. Fewer of them to swat.

[Weedon]

The fly that on your bread has wiped its feet,

Has also been and wiped then on the meat.

But worse than that, this morning (for a treat)

It trod in something nasty in the street.

 

Enjoy

Weedon

[Lori]

Lovely

[Happy Expat]

Thanx for the reminder Weedon - really needed that ...

[Missy]

[quote]No, not the trouser kind! What earthly use are they in the grand scheme of things apart from providing the odd reptile or two with a snack? They irritate animals, annoy humans and around here we have ...[/quote]

Do you want to get rid of them?...

Try to find at your ironmonger (quincailler) what a French person calls 'un gobe-mouche'

It is a clear glass bottle thing with 3 or 4 feet little glass blobs for feet to rest on. Sort of mini football shape size with a chimney neck with a cork top. At the bottom of this weird bottle there is an upward, inverted to the inside, lip and an round open gap.

You put this 'gobe-mouche' over a plate which has some kitchen paper soaked with some vinegar. Position this in the corners where you have most flies, window-sills, open kitchen shelves etc...

The fly will come to gorge itself on to the vinegar and will be sozzled! What a life!! It will fly upward inside the mini-football shape vase, round and round and quickly will not find an escape and will tire itself out to extinction and finely will come to rest inside the inverted lip or on the soaked kitchen paper.

Just clear the kitchen paper and 'gobe-mouche' every day, replace with fresh paper and vinegar.

Or if you have spearmint/peppermint/rosemary/thyme/sage plants in your garden : have mix bunches of these hanging from your kitchen shelves or ceiling. The flies just do not like the smell of these. It needs to be fresh so once the plants/herbs start to wilt and dry out, you need to replace the bunches with new ones.

There you are : organic chemical free insecticide.

[Bannon]

Smack em with a rolled up newspaper - The Guardian works for me. The Mail and Express are far to loud and are often way off target. The Financial Times is good co's you do not notice the smears after a direct hit. Tried both The Sun and The Mirror...  but all I got was a swish and a load of hot air.   

[Happy Expat]

Thanx Bannon for your recommendations - perhaps we prefer The Grauniad as we can then swat them with a social conscience ...

Bob & Jane (47)

[Val_2]

I've got those stick on transfers on my windows that kill flies as soon as they go near them and they are attracted to them as well. You can buy them in the supermarket at about 4€ for four and there are many designs. We have remarkably fewer flies in our house this year.

[Patf]

We were talking about the same thing today ie what use are flies? Why were they created? Same applies to mosquitos. All they do is give grief to humans and other animals. We have a very flexible swatter which is effective. I heard about a sort of badminton raquet with an electric battery which kills them on contact. Pat.

[Punch]

After seven years of suffering we have resigned ourselves to the fact that the only real method is to stop them getting in to the house in the first place.

So this year we have invested in good quality aluminium framed "moustiquaires" from Lapeyre, and it has been a great success so far. You can also get special mossy blinds for Velux windows (ref DIL) so we are investing these too, (and also fitting quite a few at the moment for our customers). None of this stuff is particularly cheap but it is well built and will last a long time. Some of the cheaper pvc mossy blinds have only lasted a season. Sleeping with the Veluxes open before, we have had frelons coming in at night, so these have been a costly but very welcome investment, especially in the recent heat.

The window stickers that Val2 has mentioned are quite effective for those that do get in, (although expect a pile of dead flies below the window), which is better than live ones of course

Squatting them makes a horrible mess - especially when the eggs are splattered everywhere

Fly papers are quite good but look disgusting.

There are small yellow granules in our local agri that you put in a saucer and are extremely attractive to flys - very good and quite cheap. They also sell a spray ( non toxic and biodegradable) that you spray around doorways and curtains etc which is a deterrent. This really works as I've tried it.

If your budget can't stretch this far especially if you have a lot of windows, then buy the mosquito netting from you local agri or brico, seam the ends with velcro and these can be easily made up for sticking over windows. Also any competent DIy'er could make up small wooden frames with mossy netting held onto the window frame with magnetic catches, so,are easily removed each season.

On top of the above and a with a clever cat and a scatty border collie  we have managed to keep our fly population down to virtually zero this year.

Paul

 

 

 

[Alcazar]

In one of Stephen King's books, "It", I believe, one of the character's father tells him that when God created the earth, the three things He like creating the most were poor folk, rocks, and flies. That's why He created so many of them!

My youngest is pretty handy with a flyswat, but this year we bought one of those things you see in food shops with uv lights and an electrified grille: it really works well, the "crack" when one goes into it is VERY satisfying.

Cost us £8 from a cash and carry near Lincoln.

Alcazar

[Happy Expat]

We had one of these electronic blue light fly zappers in the UK - in five years it never so much as had one. BTW we did have it switched on and yes there were flies about ...

Bob & Jane (47)

[Ejc]

Hi,

Not sure if you can get these  redtopflycatchers in france - but we have chickens and these fly catchers are very good, if a little smelly when you set them up by adding water - so keep them away from the house & out of reach of dogs & small children.....

Hope this suggestion is allowed - nothing to do with the company, but they are very effective. - Maybe get someone to bring them out from the UK?

http://www.redtopflycatchers.co.uk/index.htm

[Loiseau]

We once stayed in an antiquated hotel in rural Chile, and were surprised to see a number of clear polythene bags of water (each about the size of a large freezer bag) suspended along the lower edge of the verandah roof, about 2 metres apart.

The owner told us that it was an anti-fly measure; apparently flies wouldn't fly between the bags.

Weird or what?

Angela

[bryansmith]

We had one of the raquet type zappers bought for us by friends as a joke - the joke is it really works !

They can be bought at Casa shops.

 

[Fantine<br><br><br><br>Susie]

[quote]Do you want to get rid of them?...Try to find at your ironmonger (quincailler) what a French person calls 'un gobe-mouche'It is a clear glass bottle thing with 3 or 4 feet little glass blobs for feet ...[/quote]

We have one of these plastic domes that we put special powder and water in to attract the flies and wasps (don't know about a plate of vinegar underneath?). In two days on the verandha table it has captured and drowned about 100+ flies - Yuk or what. There are a few indoors that aren't going near the flypaper (put up in desperation) so I shall put the dome indoors now...