FUCKING FLIES

[BumbleBeeeeeee]

I have fucking had enough of fucking shitty bastard grotty fucking flies all over my fucking kitchen!!! Fucking fuckers.
That is all.

@Twirlytwoo: Celulitis must be dreadful, you poor thing, I really feel for you experiencing that every summer. These allergies to critters is so unpleasant in the summer. You can’t really get much to prevent it either. If I get bitten my whole comes up like a balloon.

I’m going to get a ‘bat of doom’ to get rid of the bastard invaders. No matter how much I open my windows they never leave, I’m so fed up. Spiders are always welcome (except the million false widows and tube spiders who live in my garage) - they can live with me rent free forever if they kill the flies. I take personal sadistic pleasure in killing mosquitoes- it’s either them or me.

@cochineal7

Fruit flies: finally found something that works. Fill quarter of a cup with some leftover wine or vinegar diluted with water...”

🤣🤣 Leftover wine 🤣🤣

The first summer after I bought my house I thought there was a dead body stashed somewhere as we had so many flies in the kitchen. Luckily (?) a neighbour put my mind at ease with the news that everyone round here is invaded by flies in the summer.

I've tried one of those blue lights, fly paper, a bat of death, sunflower stickers, not killing spiders,but the evil fuckers still invade each year. A colleague told me about the bag of water so that's next to try. I'm so fed up of them, I think with hindsight I'd have preferred the dead body as at least I could have had it removed!

I tried the bag of coins in water after reading about it on MN. Didn’t work for me

I've just had to forgo mums net time to catch one of the irritating fuckers. Now I feel I can still hear it droning in the background.

”Not being judgmental, but I can honestly say I’ve never had a kitchen full of flies. Maybe the odd one, but imo if someone has a kitchen full of them, there are some serious cleaning issues. Unless you live on a farm“

@Livelovebehappy - That is incredibly judgemental and actually quite rude!
Also, it’s not true that there must be “some serious cleaning issues”
I take great care to keep my kitchen clean (and the rest of my house) as I’m sure a lot of other posters do too, and yet the flies still come in.

Are they fruit flies? If so:

-Keep your fresh fruit covered (so they can't lay eggs on the banana skins etc), e.g. with a cotton bag or mesh cover.

-Empty your compost regularly (especially in hotter weather, when they breed faster). You could also put banana skins (which are one of the main breeding grounds) straight in the outside compost so there is less risk of them hatching inside.

-If you do get a batch that have hatched in your compost box already, crack the lid open slightly (e.g. by propping it with something) so they can get in, and then every so often close the lid, take it outside, and release them (you may need to tap the box etc so they fly off).

-Some mini hoovers will trap any stray ones unharmed for release outside.

If they are fungus gnats (hanging around near houseplants):

-Let the soil of plants dry out between waterings.

-Cover the surface of the soil with sand.

You shouldn't have plagues of other types of flies unless you have something dead, or dog muck or something sitting around in your house or near your windows. Houseflies and bluebottles might come in individually sometimes but are better at finding their way out again than the smaller ones.

In the U.S. we always have screens on our windows and our doors, and I was reading this Scottish mystery recently where a woman was complaining about the mosquitos in her house and a jolly American tourist rigged up a screen door for her, because they didn't have them in Scotland, apparently, or at least they weren't common. Despite my many visits to the UK, I can't recall noticing whether window and door screens were common (I never saw a magnetic one). Are they?

Flies are fuckers, though.

We've got the red top thing hanging outside, flypapers dangling everywhere and I'm like Andy Murray with my executioner bat but the kitchen last night was like something from a house of horror.

We ended up eating outside in the smoke of the BBQ as they don't seem to like that, All food items removed out of sight afterwards and then DH 'Raided' the kitchen and that put an end to most of them. Wipe down kitchen, and repeat again tomorrow if this good weather continues

There is always one persistent one that buzzes furiously for ages when it lands on the fly paper. Utter wee bastards!!

@Livelovebehappy

Not being judgmental, but I can honestly say I’ve never had a kitchen full of flies. Maybe the odd one, but imo if someone has a kitchen full of them, there are some serious cleaning issues. Unless you live on a farm.

Oh Fuck off. That is totally judgemental and in the majority of cases nowt to do with cleanliness. We live in the country and is just one of those things we have to put up with in hot weather. I curse you with......... a plague of flies. See how fecking smug you are then!

Why don’t British homes have fly screens on the windows?!?! I never understood this when I was living there. It’s not like you don’t have insects.

YANBU. I thought it was just my house and that we must be grim !

Frolicking you need Sure Pet Feeder for your cat. The lid closes when the cat has finished so no flies get at the food.

www.petplanet.co.uk/p21949/surefeed_microchip_pet_feeder.aspx?ptm_source=google&ptm_medium=shopping&ptm_campaign=under10_66650&campaign=324014531&adgroup=24641921891&keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwmrn5BRB2EiwAZgL9ojgetZTeO_sQrQyZHxfCwZ16DdOoiWeGrFV26Wg2Wu6TigM7p8kYZhoC_eQQAvD_BwE

I grew up in Australia and find it crazy how people don't have fly screens over here. Anyway my dog likes catching flies so it is ok.

Honestly feel like the tea towel is glued to my hand at the minute so that I’m ready to whack the annoying blooming things. Got those window stickers, they didn’t help. Going to try the hanging tape next. They bite me as well so it’s bloody sore not to mention the fly crap all over my wooden flooring and my wooden blinds and the tapes on them 😫 it’s really hard to get off!

@rosiejaune I live in the country try with a farm a few houses down and cows on the field at the back of the house, I’m guessing that’s where mine are coming from 😩

I'm surrounded by farms as well. Everyone I know has flies in their house. We have window tape, fly tape and 3 swatters but the fuckers are sly and still taunt me. I have about 10 in my kitchen right now.
And I totally agree about the windows, flies are either very clever or immensely dumb but they never fly out of an open window.

Have you considered a citronella defuser? We mix lavender and citronella oil from holland and barrett and use an electric defuser in the kitchen. Kid you not, 99% drop in flies now. Was never able to open the kicten door when cooking (especially salmon!) Now I pop the difuser by the door and its like the scent moves into the garden.

Electric tennis bat fly swat thing- bloody marvelous they crackle and pop!! Great on bastard mosquitoes as well as flies.

We have screens on every opening, all windows and doors mainly because we are surrounded by water and mosquitoes /horse flies are a huge problem where I live ( not UK).
The odd one does get in, I cover myself in Jungle formula deet every evening !
My DH cannot cope when we visit my family in the UK during summer as they have no screens all doors and windows open and lots of flies, he takes his own fly swat and spends the evening killing them all !

My ndn has a load of binbags in their garden and there are swarms of houseflies everywhere. It's a military operation getting out of our door so the flies don't come in and yet they still do. And, of course, once they're here they won't go back out.

Raid fly spray doesn't work, I sprayed one at point blank and it flew away like I'd given it vitamins. Splatting is tricky and revolting - I got one and it exploded across the wall in a patch more than 2ft in diameter which I had to clean and it really put me off my tea. Getting them on the window to chase back out isn't easy at all. But I have found a foolproof solution! Mr Sheen polish. When they land somewhere, give them a good squirt of it, enough to make a puddle over them. It finishes them off every time and they can just be wiped up with half a roll of kitchen to minimise retching and bunged in the outside bin. The last fly in here was on a window and I furniture polished it out as a warning to its mates. Nothing since (no doubt I'll go into another room now and there'll be about 50).

sat in my chair the damned things keep crawling up my legs then i have to sit jigging my legs to get them to go away but they are back in seconds.
we have zappers fly papers etc but they seem to evade them all. think there must be horseflies in amongst it as partner has been bitten a few times

And I totally agree about the windows, flies are either very clever or immensely dumb but they never fly out of an open window.

I’m going with immensely dumb by the morgue that sometimes appears on our windowsills

We've been plagued by flies for a couple of weeks, the cats have probably hidden a dead rodent somewhere but yesterday DP remembered that we had an electric fly zapper in the shed. It's been plugged in for a day now and most of them have gone.

Something like this.

@HM1984

Have you considered a citronella defuser? We mix lavender and citronella oil from holland and barrett and use an electric defuser in the kitchen. Kid you not, 99% drop in flies now. Was never able to open the kicten door when cooking (especially salmon!) Now I pop the difuser by the door and its like the scent moves into the garden.

Yes, this has been a game changer for us. We have the whole back of the house open in summer and that’s not possible to fly screen, but a cheap diffuser with 10 drops of citronella oil each side keeps the room fly free unless I’m carving a roast. We know to refill the diffusers when we hear buzzing.

It’s not a question of how clean your kitchen is, whoever said it.
If you live anywhere near fields of animals and their poo, you’re going to get them.
Fact of life.
We get virtually none here - SW London - friends in Devon with fields of sheep nearby, get plagues of them.