Shoo Fly

There are many types of flies around at this time of year.  A few do a bit of pollinating but most of them are just a nuisance.

The two types we see more often are houseflies and bluebottles, which love to be around humans. You’ve probably got one flying overhead right now or bashing its head against the window. Although similar in many ways, there are some differences between a housefly and bluebottle, which may be important when it comes to dealing with the problems they cause.

Humans have pretty much sought to keep houseflies out of their lives as long as they've had houses for them to fly into. Even before advances in science allowed them to understand the risk of infectious disease, many people saw the fly as a harbinger of sickness and death. Some ancient civilizations made regular sacrifices to their respective fly gods to keep the swarms out of their homes and temples; we generally just get out the rolled newspaper. 

Houseflies lay their eggs in moist, decaying matter especially household waste, manure or compost – unlike bluebottles which exclusively lay on dead animal bodies, meat or cheese. 

Under ideal conditions the whole lifecycle – from egg to maggot to adult – can take place in less than a fortnight. As adults, houseflies can fly distances of five miles or more, so they have little difficulty travelling from these breeding sites, entering your home and landing on the cheese sandwich you have just made. Houseflies stay more local and don’t go more than a few hundred yards in their 10-20 days of life.

Houseflies have a series of stripes along their mid-section, while bluebottles are a distinctive metallic blue. The larvae are almost indistinguishable except for size, the full-grown bluebottle maggot being larger but it’s hard to compare really.

Houseflies are the flies with the erratic flight patterns, usually around lampshades. Both houseflies and bluebottles can seemingly come in the house though the smallest of cracks (But can’t get back out of them)

If you have a lot in the house with the windows closed, you might have something dead under the floorboards. 

It’s not all bad

You would think their only purpose was to wind us up and spread disease (there are a lot) but they do have a use in the food chain, they fulfil an important environmental role as scavengers. As houseflies and their larvae feed, they consume nutrients in rotting organic matter. They leave behind picked-over remains that other organisms, bacteria and enzymes can further break down.

Bluebottle maggots are sometimes used to clean wounds. These larvae were reared at a Chinese housefly farm, where experts believe they may be used to develop cancer medication.

Flies and their larvae are also an important food source for a large number of predators. Housefly pupae contain large amounts of protein and are thus especially beneficial to the various birds, reptiles, and insects that prey on them. You can even purchase frozen or freeze-dried housefly pupae to feed pet spiders. It’s still not enough to stop getting the swatter out though. 

Dealing with Fly Problems

My mother used to keep everything closed in the house when the flies were around. They still got in as people came through the door. I’ve compiled a few tips here and I can say with confidence that none of them really work for long.  

Cover your food and keep the kitchen tidy. Good hygiene and a few sensible precautions, such as frequent cleaning of the kitchen drains, disposing of scraps carefully and keeping waste and compost in secure bins, form the best approach to controlling fly problems in the long term.

There are some high tech methods you can use. UV fly zappers work well and larger buildings have air barriers where the constant flow of air outwards buffers the flies so they don’t come in.

The simplest example of this would be killing flies with a swatter. You can get electrical one with a small charge in them and look like a tennis racket. 

 Fly paper is something I tried to use in my polytunnel one year but I kept getting entangled in the sticky tape. You can use them around the rim of a hat which might work. 

The team of gardeners at Glenveigh walk around with tins of smouldering turf on them which is fine outdoors but not so practical in the house. You can get sprays but you’ll need to check if they are safe to use in the kitchen.

Maybe try natural methods.  There are plants and essential oils you can put near windows and doors. Ginger, basil, pepper, eucalyptus, geranium, tea tree even catnip lemon and cider vinegar are all said to work for a while.

If all else fails, get the vacuum out,