Help! Fly infestation in our holiday gîte in France.

[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 and I'm fast becoming a nervous wreck. I accept lots of buzzing critters are usually around but this is ridiculous. They dive bomb our faces at every opportunity and we cannot relax at all. Ive killed loads and this morning I counted another 50 at least.

Help!

Poor you!

Try a spray (everywhere, just before you go out for a few hours) or if you don't want to do that, citronella candles (readily available in supermarkets). I use flypaper in UK, but don't know if that's easy to find in France).

cluster flies. nightmare to get rid of. can you get hold of the owner and get them to get pest control out otherwise you will be fighting a losing battle. they live in the lofts, wall cavities, inside windows and you really need something pretty nasty to get rid of them. Sorry - don't mean to put a dampner on your lovely holiday. hope you get it sorted.

Thanks both. Im spraying before we go to the pool and at night before bed. Thankfully, they are not in our bedrooms but seem to gather in the kitchen/lounge area. No matter how we keep the only door to the gite shut, more find a way in. Fly paper is on our list for this afternoon.

It is a problem in rural france in August. Fly paper is your best bet, they look ugly but they do work. And don't forget to keep all food covered.

I used to get these cluster flies in my utility room, for some odd reason - it was a house in a rural area. Fly papers were the only thing that worked at all, very unappealing but they did the job pretty well.

Fly papers are bought and already are full. Overnight, 37 were caught!

try spraying around cheap perfume - I mean really really cheap think 99p for a big bottle. the chemicals apparently disrupt the pheromones. we have to do this in our loft and inside our plastic windows every spring and autumn (drenching the place) to stop them breeding or we have a real problem with them in the summer.

Will do mummymeister - plenty of cheap stuff around in supermarkets.

Littleesme- are you staying where we did a week or so ago?! We had a plague of flies- flappers were full in 30 mins!

Mind you there were major dirt issues in the property and DH found rat droppings and what looked like a bit of a nest in a cupboard - eek!

We stayed one night and left- owner gave us a full refund when she saw the photos.

Hope yours gets sorted.

We had the same a few years ago - rural France again. We used fly paper.