Flies driving us insane

[LittleEsme]

We're in the loveliest of gites, no bins nearby to attract them, no neighbours to blame, no whiffy odours nearby and our bins are tied. There are at least 50 flies in here no matter how I swipe, spray, tazar and poison them, they keep on coming. It's seriously hampering our stay here.

Help!

Sorry - i know. I should have posted this elsewhere. Am desperate!

Shame you're camping as the only thing we've found is vacuuming them up. They seem resistant to fly spray. My sister has the same problem in her house (except it's thousands of the fuckers) and all the fly spray does is make them a bit groggy for a short time before recovering and flying off again.

As you say 'gite' I'm assuming you're in France - the home of the fly! We've really suffered with flies in France on many holidays. I remember several gites we stayed in as kids had those revolting sticky fly papers hanging from the ceiling to catch them as they were so numerous. You literally couldn't have the door open without the house getting full of them, particularly in the kitchen. One holiday in the Poitiers area was particularly bad.

Once when abroad my parents bought one of those blue light things from a hypermarket which was fairly effective at zapping them - as long as you can cope with the regular noise when they get fried!

The latest trick I've heard is putting a coin in water in a ziplock (strong) sandwich bag and hanging it up - apparently the reflections combined with flies/insects having lots of eyes means that they see so many 'competitors' they buzz off. No idea if it works but worth a try when desperate!

We're near Poitiers. Spoke to the owners earlier and they have the same problem in their home. Lots of recent rain has brought on an onslaught of the bastards (sorry -Im a bit unhinged by them all).

Duchesse you're so right about the spray - lots seem to be a bit sleepy then recovering after a while.

Local shops are all out of flypaper because everyone has the same problem. Im going to have to google bricomarche to find my nearest and head there this afternoon for flypaper. I used to feel sorry for them once caught, but now i want to annihilate the little feckers.

Just be careful where you hang your fly paper - I've got my hair stuck in them on occasion and they're extremely sticky and hard to disentangle yourself from. They're effective though in a way not much else is. Good luck!

My sister lives on a farm with horses and the flies are just unspeakable. Her house is spotless but she must have a dozen fly papers up at once they're all covered in a day. And still the fuckers are flying around. Like you, I just want them dead. Vacuuming them is very effective.