Interesting, because I read somewhere that since mosquitoes are only attracted to the carbon dioxide in our breath all this gadgets that rely on light / UV light are a complete waste of money. Flies, yes, mosquitoes no.
The dead bodies you have to sweep out of them must attest to that then 
What you say/read may be true, but all I can say is that there a great many remnants of mosquitoes in the tray at every cleaning.
The ‘zappers’ are area limited, the Lidl ones cover a quite small area, the ones we use cover upto 150m².
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I bought a very well reviewed one from. Amazon - it works very well and was about 30 euros.
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We have a goldfish (Henry) in the open waterbutt. He has survived at least the last 3 years - and perhpas a few years before we bought the property.
Lives on whatever breeds in the water butt, plus a few goldfish flakes and some duckweed from the pond.
Only time we interact is when we clean out the butt and he has to move into a temporary container.
Goldfish are totally hardy - he hibernates at the bottom during winter - no need to feed him once water temp is below 10C…
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I wonder if that would work for all of us during the cost of living crisis?
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Me too, just had three weeks of turmoil after a bite from a horse fly to the face, severe tummy upset sweats and chills and lost 6 kilos, two blood tests and a shed load of tablets and I’m just coming out of it. So I need a solution as it’s a major problem for me. I only used to swell up and itch but not anymore it seems.
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I sympathise: I’ve had 2 x insect bite related a&e visits one of which resulted in 2 weeks in intensive care. Not pleasant at all 
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Horseflies… do they prefer a certain something… horsey… or what???
can one not simply avoid their favourite habitats…??
we don’t seem to get them 
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I’d forgotten about the horsefly. That was the cause of another icu holiday…
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I’m only affected while wearing a saddle🤣unfortunately they are everywhere but lucky for most not everyone are affected by them.
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No. They like water - so can be found round swimming pools. They seem to be territorial. We have a few in our garden and I’ve been using upturned cheap black buckets hung on a rope from surrounding trees covered in something called Sticky Trap which is a glue that remains gluey.
Horse flies use sight to find their prey and the black bucket is supposed to remind them of a horse’s head. They fly onto it and then get stuck. Certainly I’ve noticed them going for black things - eg I’ve seen them land on the barbeque cover.
It seems to work and also attracts ordinary flies, so helps keep the general fly population down as well.
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Sticky trap? Where do I get that from, do you put it inside or outside the bucket?
We put some fly paper up but they only annoyed us in the wind plus the usual cheap drawing pin pushed into the finger when hanging it, years since we used any of them so forgot about the shite drawing pin provided but it soon came back to me.
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Outside. I bought mine online from a horse supplies website: https://www.agradi.fr/
If you look on the internet and in places like Gamm Vert they will show you fancy (expensive) systems with a ball and a net above it but quite frankly the 1 euro black bucket and Sticky Trap seems to be enough
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Thanks for that, I will give it a go.
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In terms of inside, those annoying sticky flypapers are the only things that work for me 
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Unfortunately humans would need insane amounts of energy to go into hibernation/suspended animation.
More layers of insulation copying the Innuit of Canada helps with the heating bill…
No more - just a tshirt in December whilst hesting cranked up to the max…
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…have to say I echo Geof, we live on the coast with very few unpleasant pests, and also unforunately less insects…but that seems common everywhere, as when we lived in Yorkshire until 2019 is was noticeable how much fewer were the insects on a car windscreen.
Also benefit from climate that is (normally) not to hot in summer and only a few frosts in winter…the downside is plenty of rain (again normally!)…"overall how nice our life is in Brittany"
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Well moving to Brittany as nice as it sounds ain’t an option, just have to try all other options.
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