Flies!!!

Tbh I welcome them. I have been alarm at how few there are and this of course affects the food chain - birds etc.

Not on food of course???

Strangely WWM2, here in Spain it’s the same!

I fully expected them to be around this summer as every other year but for some reason, they’re few and far between! Normally I’m replacing swatters at the end of summer but ours have hardly been used!

Craftycat we’ve had loads too; but only recently any wasps, earlier in the summer hardly any. I share your pain re fly spray and closed door. We’re south and more heat this week forecast, even when it had cooled down though, they were still around! Dirty things.

I have a door facing the sun too Craftycat and was recently advised as to the merits of some sort of bead curtain.

I’ve been wondering about this over the last few days only to discover some little hooks outside my back door for exactly such an item! I might think about this for next year if I can come up with a smart solution.

I find that I react far worse to the bite of flies than midges, coming up in weeping weals that are not pretty. They look like ordinary flies, but could they be horse flies? We have no horses within a mile of the place. My legs really need to be hidden out of sight, but it is too hot today!

My husband was bitten last night, inside the house, by a Devil's Coach Horse (had to look up the body!) Anyone else getting those?

I've got one of these. My tennis is improving no end. Flies, wasps, anything that moves!

Mine are always zipped up tight.

Oh heavens they are awful this year!! I HATE them being in the house and Notspaghetti have been through every type of door curtain known to man! By far the best, and obviously more expensive though are the chain type like this, so don't waste your money on the rest just go straight to this type!

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Metal-Chain-Insect-Fly-Door-Curtain-Screen-Aluminium-Pest-Control-214-x-90CM/303234984330?hash=item469a36a98a:g:gMAAAOSwbPVdOW6S

If flies dislike citronella and lavender etc in the body creams we apply, maybe smear the bin lid in lemon juice or hang sprigs of lavender close by?

The wife of a dairy farmer reported that she uses the vanilla-scented “hanging” car fresheners, to help keep flies away.
The other trick is to fill 1/2of a sandwich bag w/ water, & drop in a couple of copper pennies, then seal the bag & clip it up where the flies are. Appar. this bothers their eyes, so they’ll keep away.

Thanks MadeinYorkshire - not beautiful but sometimes you just want air and don't care.

We had this fly problem in my "old" house every harvest. Would definitely have bought one there!

Fly screens - expensive but they work!

Buy a few of these! Apparently they can be easily house-trained!

"House geckos should be fed a variety of small prey items. Crickets can make up the main part of their diet with the addition of fruit flies and other small flies, silkworms, the occasional mealworm, and other insects.Jul 15, 2020"

OoRoo

I have a removable fly screen curtain on the French doors which are open a lot, I rarely get flies in the house it works well.

Yes, geckos are great!
And stay hidden mostly.

I don't think they're quite so good at catching flies though because flies are speedy little devils.
And they can fly.
?

If I were somewhere hot I would definitely invest in bug screens Callistemon! We had them when we lived in America, Fantastic!

I don't think they're quite so good at catching flies

Do I have to do all the work round here!?

Buy chameleons instead!

We don't seem to have any more or fewer flies than most years apart from annoying gnats or tiny flies.

I just give the bluebottles a good whack with a rolled up Liverpool Echo. That does the trick Aren't really that many---they probably tell each other not to come near here.

Plenty of spiders webs outside though strung from shrub to shrub which could be a reason for the lack of flies etc., straight into the webs.

Definitely more flies here this summer!

I try to avoid fly spray, not good for my copd, and these days they don't seem to work anyway! Have resorted to those horrid fly papers.

B9exchange you don't need to have horses nearby to get horseflies, they gather near ponds too.

Horrid things, they love me and I get a bad reaction to their bites!

I've discovered that ibuprofen gel works well on the bites.

I did buy the old style fly paper, The main fly I caught was myself!! Since buying the fly paper (on amazon) word (or buzzes ) have got round and they don't come near us!!

Plenty of greenbottles round here but this summer I’ve only seen ONE ladybird, which I thought was very odd and disappointing.

Are you putting any scraps of meat or fish in the bin? I’ve read that bluebottles can smell anything dead, so obv. including meat, from a mile away! So even just a few very small scraps might be enough.
I keep any such scraps - not that we ever have much at all - well wrapped and in the freezer, until the night before the bin men come.
We do have a food waste bin, collected weekly, but if we’re going to miss the collection, that bag goes in the freezer too, even though it’s just veg peelings etc. until the bin men come.
I don’t have a big freezer, either - just the 3 drawers under the fridge.

PS, should have added, if you’re anywhere near fields with lots or horse/cow/sheep poo, I ditto fly papers. Friends in rural North Devon in the midst of such fields found them the best way in summer, horrible though they are.