Damn flies!

Get a polythene zipper bag put several coins in fill with water, when you have your side/back door open lay it on mat. Apparently it works, I’m going to try tomorrow

We don’t have many flies fortunately, but had one last week, a small fly which evaded us and was a nuisance until I found it yesterday dead on a coaster.Presumably from lack of nourishment.

Callistemon

I was chatting on the phone last night and saw what I thought were hordes of flying ants rising up from the garden. At least, I hope they were ants and not newly hatched mosquitoes waiting to feast on me today.

It's a good year for insects of all kinds from teeny flies upwards. The wasps are ready and waiting until the weather warms up again.

Yes, the flying ants took off from here too yesterday!

I gave my husband a fly swatter and he was sceptical, but it works a treat. I suppose that the flies don't feel it coming as it's a plastic mesh so they don't feel the displacement of air. I'm no scientist, so I'm only guessing!! But it's brilliant, gets them every time, and just a couple of quid!

We had one of those racquet things. I laughed so much at DH doing a demented John McEnroe impression. Unwittingly!!!

Witzend

I’m sure they were flying ants in our garden yesterday afternoon, @Callistemon - ant sized and shaped but winged, and apparently finding my blue and white top irresistible!

DH just said
"Your friend Tomasz just announced this morning that today could be the day when the ants fly, so they probably were the first batch you saw yesterday".

(My friend Tomasz Shafernaker )

We had a fly zapper racquet but we thought the batteries had gone and new ones didn't do the trick either. So it's back to swatting.

Venus fly traps are good.
My dgc love watching how they work too.
No chemicals just nature.

The battery racquet reminded me of a stay in India. The first evening two sole,n men gentlemen arrived at our bungalow to announce “ good evening Sir, Madam, we are the mosquito conquerors May we come in?” They wielded a battery racquet mans something like the insense swingy thing in church. They duly went through the house, don’t know about the mosquitoes we could hardly see for smoke ! We still find this hilarious, they were so serious in their mission!!

I’m sure they were flying ants in our garden yesterday afternoon, @Callistemon - ant sized and shaped but winged, and apparently finding my blue and white top irresistible!

I have one of those battery operated zapper racquets which usually does the job and the fly stays stuck until you take your finger off the power to drop it in the bin. The smell of burnt fly however is not the most pleasant but neither is that of nasty chemicals which I particularly dislike in the kitchen.

I was chatting on the phone last night and saw what I thought were hordes of flying ants rising up from the garden. At least, I hope they were ants and not newly hatched mosquitoes waiting to feast on me today.

It's a good year for insects of all kinds from teeny flies upwards. The wasps are ready and waiting until the weather warms up again.

J52

Probably an old wives take, but apparently growing mint near the back door, windows prevents flies entering the house.
I do it and hardly ever see a fly.

I was told that about spiders, that they dislike mint.

So I wiped around the conservatory with a damp cloth with mint essence on it and there don't seem to have been so many around. However, I expect I'll go in there in a minute and find the ubiquitous spiders webs and poo.

Ugh, fly papers are horrible, but undoubtedly effective. Friends in rural Devon who had too many flies in summer used to hang fly papers in the kitchen - but one was hung too close to a cupboard, and more than once I forgot when putting clean things away, and got the vile thing stuck in my hair! ?

Someone I know owns a dairy farm, & told me she always hangs up several of those vanilla scented (cardbrd) air fresheners pp’l use in cars, to deal w/ the inevitable flies.
Fingers crossed it works in kitchens too, lol.

Fly paper.

I can't kill a fly or any other living thing. I just try to shoo them out. I have heard if you hang a plastic bag of water with coins in it at your kitchen door it scares them off. Something to do with them seeing their reflections in the coins. Worth a try!

I had a lot of flies in greenhouse. DH hung several gangly file papers in there. They were very effective. Until I forgot they were other and got one entangled in my hair. Oh the trauma. Yuk yuk.

Thank you all for responding, appreciated!

I can't use insecticides or any chemicals due to allergies. I do have awful reactions to insect bites at times.

I have pots of lemon geranium on the windowsills. Above the back door, I have the good old 'plastic bag fly deterrent'.

Nearly fill a clear plastic bag with water, add a small coin, seal and hang from a hook above the door. Flies think it's a big spider's web and won't fly under it.

Another hook has the very useful waspinator repeller (an artificial wasp nest) that actually repels flies too!

Raid takes several blasts I find, during which time the fly goes berserk! I have fine mesh over the open upstairs windows to stop my cat jumping out, but the flies still manage to get in somehow. I used to have a weapon like a battery operated tennis racquet which gave a satisfying spark and fizz as it made contact, but it was a bit gruesome!

Today has been a flying ant day in my garden, I saw them shooting up like smoke from a chimney. Raid worked on them. I then poured boiling water into the nest.

We’ve got a lot of what I think are flying ants outside - I had to come in, too many were landing on me.

At lunchtime I had a fly flitting around in my kitchen. DH opened the window to let it out he said! It wasn't there before the window was opened, or I hadn't noticed it.

I have a shallow bowl filled with a solution of vinegar and sugar covered with cling film which I have punctured with lots of holes......flies are attracted to the solution but cannot escape.

I always mean to grow shoo fly plants like my aunt used to, but I forget at the critical moment! The plant does work.