to be going off my nut with bloody flies [going mental]

[LittleEsme]

In France in a beautiful gite in the country. Been here two days and ive annhialated at least 60 flies already. Ive sprayed them, zapped them with my fly-tazar, bought flower sticker killer stuff to stick onto windows and chased them arund with my slipper. I'm obsessed and all my Buddhist tendencies are well and truly gone in my murderous spree.

Im trying to prepare food and they are everywherre. On me, on counters, everywhere. I COULD CRY. I'm more than used to France and its flying critters but I Have NEVER come accross anything as bad as this.

HELP.

There'll be something dead somewhere. Have you put all the bins away frm the house?

Yeah DH has double checked the bins. The place is immaculate and there is no odour of anything grim. We're in the middle of nowhere so cant blame neighbours bins either. Shit this is going to seriously spoil my time here - as i type, there are 8 on the sofa and 4 trying to land on my leg.

Hate swearing, but FUCK FUCK FUCK.

A desperate bump

Flies don't like elder, is there any growing nearby, you could cut and put in a vase in the house.

LittleEsme I live in France and I think it's because of the recent heatwave. There are loads and loads of them (and flying ants). Do you have any lavender near you? If you tie it in little bunches and put it on beams/walls, it can keep most of them away, they hate the smell apparently. Apart from that, there isn't really anything you can do I'm afraid. You have my sympathy, two are dive-bombing me as I type

Are you keeping the doors and windows shut?

Insect repelling sun cream stops them landing on you... Not much other advice though I'm afraid!

Can you buy a European version of the Aussie envirosafe fly trap? I'm crap at links but of you google this, you'll see what I mean. It's astonishingly effective.

To keep flies away from the food when you're eating sprinkle vinegar on the table.

Weird, but it works.

Hang fly paper everywhere! My kitchen was full of them as I have cat food out and now I have no flies and lots of lovely strips of fly paper covered in fly corpses.

Great tips everyone, thanks.
Flypaper is on my list but im going to have to travel to find a shop that still has some in stock. Everyone has the same problem here.
Lots of lavender here so I'lll pick some. Will the same work with lavender essential oil?

A friend told me the other day that if you hang some coins in a sandwich bag with some water in over doors and windows it keeps them away!? Haven't tried it myself, but she reckons it works!

My next door neighbour has open dog kennels and there are flies everywhere because of the dog poo. It is disgusting and the smell is horrendous during the summer.

afromum It really does work!

I saw it on Facebook - a small clear plastic bag with water in, and a couple of coins in the bottom, hung in the doorway/window where the flies come in.

I've used it at my cafe door and it's brilliant! a few small flies still come in, but the annoying blue bottles and horseflies are a thing of the past.

I don't understand how it works, but it does, so I don't care!

What type of coins? Coppers or the silvery ones

She had 2p's so I guess copper ones

science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/insects-arachnids/water-bags-repel-flies.htm
Just googled it and found this.

Ooh my first successful weblink!

So - having read the link - it's got to be quite a big clear bag of water then. It's to do with light refraction from the bag confusing the flies at the door.

I was picturing a little bag with a small amount of water in it. And was going to ask if it needs to be open or closed

Would love this to work i bloody hate the things.

It doesn't have to be that big, mines a small sandwich bag with a couple of cupfuls of water in - and I double bag it so it doesn't leak on customers heads!

I've just got back from a French gite and the flies were dreadful. With so many farms nearby the sprays don't work, only fly paper worked. We put 4 up at a time and within a couple of hours they were completely full - more than 40 on each. After the first week we realised (doh) that we needed to keep the doors shut, so we drew the curtains to keep it cool. Once we did all this is became a lot more bearable. I've never known anything like it though, and it made eating outside quite unpleasant.

DoubleMum - whereabouts were you out of interest?
Fly tape is up and is already full < uuurgh>

Being overtly fussy about the doors is also a must.

I thank you all for putting up with my hysteria.