The flies are back and already driving me to distraction.

[sunshinecocktail]

We have lived in our house for almost 30 years and have rarely had any problems with flies until last summer.

I live in a semi-rural village and our house is surrounded by fields, (not sure if that is relevant to this issue or not?). Last summer, I noticed several people on our local FB group complaining about the amount of flies in their homes, unfortunately we also had the exact same issue. Weirdly neither my sister nor my friend, who both live around the corner from me and have multiple pets, had any issues.

I keep my house clean, I clean the kitchen every day, don't leave food lying around, don't leave dog food out and ddog is clean and not a stinky dog but we became almost infested with flies coming in (exaggeration I suppose but I detest flies).

We just can't keep windows closed during the summer as the back of our house is south facing and a chalet bungalow so bedrooms are usually roasting, June-September.

How do people get rid of these blighters? I spent a small fortune on bug sprays, zappers, door and window screens and even trying endless 'natural' remedies but nothing worked. I had to resort to fly tape which did work but they are disgusting and gross.

Obviously winter hasn't been an issue but it's now nicer weather again and I have noticed that we are getting a few flies back and already I am getting the rage, I bloody hate them, they made my summer miserable.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can keep our windows open without this issue?

Yes, I use blocks or slices of Savon de Marseille, the traditional olive oil soap on window ledges. For some reason I don’t understand, it works as a deterrent. Also for moths.

So does dissolving and diluting it into a spritz bottle to blast flies on plants.

Are they cluster flies? They need a different approach. Usually nest around window frames or in loft. Really fast and buzzy. Bloody annoying

I will try that.

They could well be, they are the fast and buzzy and are indeed very bloody annoying.

In which case you need to find them. Start by opening all windows slowly to check around frames.

I too live in a village but there are fields about 6 houses away. Mine are generally blue bottle flies but some smaller ones and also huge things.

I have these traps away from the house in the garden. They DO NOT go inside the house like my MIL did. They absolutely stink! I've read you can use liver powder from a fishing supplier rather than buying the refill powder, but never tried it myself. The traps fill up and its extraordinary how many flies go in there. Its likely not great for the environment though and I don't know how many it stops from coming inside. Argos have a 2 pack on sale currently for £6.

Last year I bought a plug in, electric blue light buzzer thing from lidl which is supposed to zap the flies dead. It hasn't killed one- so I can only assume the device is broken, because I've seen similar working well abroad.

I previously used sticky fly paper but it blew in the breeze inside, got stuck to a cabinet then got stuck in my hair. That was fun trying to remove 😡

I'm eye up those clear, sticky things you put on windows but then I want to see the view, not fly carcasses. I shall try to olive oil soap mention up thread.

We have midge proof roller blind screens on all the windows , that works .

Farmer here.
Red top fly traps are the only thing that touches the side. If they don’t work you r got cluster flies and need to find the source