fear of flies

[mixedemotions123]

Does anyone have any suggestions of how to deal with this one?
my asd 7yr old is terrified of flies. If one is in the house, it may as well be a world war 2 bomber, going out for a walk is a nightmare due to flies, playing in the garden etc. Because he gets so upset, his 4yr old brother now sees them as something to get hysterical about too.
Please, if anyone has found a way of overcoming this, I would be so grateful to hear how!!!

Can't really help, although I remember ds being scared of them when he was around 4 or 5. He just grew out of it.

Bluebottles? May be the noise, or the unpredictability. If your son is able enough and scared of one hitting him then I would teach him to shake a tea towel at them or something, and reassure that they can't hurt. If it's the noise, or your son is less able then that's tricker- but if it is noise then I have found the noise triggers that set ds1 off switch all the time,

mixedemotions123 we have the same trouble asyou with ds he is nearly 5 also ASD, doesnt matter how small the fly is he just has a toatl meltdown due to it, when the sun shines through your window and you can them tiny tiny bits of dust or what ever it is he is 100%convinced that is flys as well so far the only way we have found to calm him down is chase the fly round the house and squish it.
and beleave me isnt much fun with them little midgie ones can spend hours looking for it drives you crazy in the end
just brought yesterday a bug killer spray to save me the hours of looking havent had to use it yet but i pray that it will work

Hi everyone
I have tried sprays, I have even brought tiny plastic flies for him to hold so that he can see that they will not hurt him. The noise is the hardest as even if he hears a strimmer somewhere he thinks its a fly. We keep bedroom windows closed to keep them out as much as possible.
Ds2 is only scared because he has seen how ds1 has reacted over them,and at the moment ds2 is even worse than ds1!!!
If they see one in the room,they are out as quick as lightning, hystrical to boot!

My DD is also a bit phobic about anything that flies (or looks like it could fly) that is smaller than a bird. She hates bees, wasps, flies, spiders, flying ants, anything like that.

I think this has stemmed from the fact that she was stung on the lip (and her whole lip swelled up) two summers ago. Now anything that flies she is petrified of.

Sorry I cannot help you with any suggestions.

OOOOOh Bumblelion, I am not suprised she is scared. That must have hurt like hell. My ds thankfully has never been stung or had any sort of nasty experience, I just hope he will grow out of it. We go to Turkey at the end of May, just hope there aren't too many flies

I was in the garden centre yesterday and they had fly swatters which were the size of a badminton racquet (think they were battery operated) to zap flies - which may be preferable to chemical sprays. Even if he's not up to the chase it might make your life easier!
I use Vapona fly stickers on some of our windows. They just look like a sunflower and the colour etc attract any flies and they die on contact. They are out of reach & not emitting any nasty spays into the air in the likes of the kitchen. Seem to do the trick too.
Also carry a small (lipstick size) Germolene bites and stings spray in my handbag in the summer. It's like that Waspeze (spelling?) stuff but so tiny it's easy to carry and great if you spray on straight away as it should stop the pain and swelling.

thanks reiver
The splatters sound like a good idea. I will give them a try. We too have the fly strips and flowers which seem to minimise the amount of flies that we get in the house.

mixedemotions
Hope you have a great holiday, we were in Turkey last year & can't recall seeing a single fly.. but it may be because there were thousands of small birds (sparrow like things, but small) very tame would come & try to pinch your food from your plate hope he is OK with small birds.

hi, yes I think he will be fine with {small) birds. We have not been to Turkey before, hope its nice