Best way to keep flies away from bunnies

[mdpis3]

This will be our first summer with two teeny tiny minilop bunnies. They are 4 months. We've got everything in place: cleaning cage 2/3 times a week, grooming them, lots of top and tail checks and the fly strike spray but I wondered whether there was any truth in placing Lavender near the cage in order to ward off flies? They are outdoor bunnies but very much part of the family and I want to keep the flies away as much as possible.

Any tips are greatly appreciated....

My nan always used to say that the best way to keep flies out of the kitchen was to put a pile of horseshit in the dining room, but I don't suppose that helps much.

Haha Harriet, I think we have the same Nan.

We use the fly strips from b&iq . They are sticky strips that the flies are attracted to,we hang them near the cage.

We don't have bunnies but we have 3 guinea-pigs, so similar worries in summer.

I change the bedding hay / newspaper daily, summer and winter.

In summer they have plain newspaper on the floor (winter they have deep litter cardboard bedding)

Fine mesh on the windows of their Pighouse (with grid mesh and fox-proof bars)

I bought rearguard but haven't used it.

Guard against dirty bottoms and though your teeny tiny bunnies will grow, try not to let them get too porky (glares at chubby hogs) or they won't be able to groom.

And YY bum checks- flystrike can take literally a few hours to take hold