“H-Traps” for horse flies. A couple of hundred quid for a black ball and a net. but it’s the best thing for horse flies.
They can be found online cheaper than I can buy them!
edit: here’s the US website https://h-trap.com
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Or these? Had one fly nip me the other day that was definitely not a horse fly.
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Very interesting Jane, not hestd of that and has completely put me off looking for a house in Blanford Forum ( a place we were previously looking at).
Excellent! Thank you Rob, shall be looking a few out, we have the green head breed. I have to also say that Jane 's info on the Blanford fly which indeed are small and bite around the ankles are also prevalent. Taken out thousands of flies with thevred top traps so far and will be asking our neighbour if he would consider re locating his horse stable wooden shed farther away as it is at the boundary and less than 3m from our pool.
I think that is what has bitten me after tackling some tall weeds in the “garden” on Monday. Did not appear until last night but are hardly visible small hard bites around the ankle and only my Apaisyl roll on has soothed them. Deffo no mossie bites as there is no red skin nor really visible sting and not the Autâts either yet
Woke up during the night to thunder and the sound of rain! This is the sky from bedroom window about 7.30am this morning. Still raining, still thundering, and hope it comes your way soon.
Cool breeze…
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Just a gentle moisten of the ground around us, still air so fans are on to waft cooler outside air into the house. Weather says rain most of the day
Still no rain for weeks now down here. Like a tinder box waiting to go off at the slightest thing. Last night thankfully the prohibition on fireworks here made it quiet outside what with footie fans licking their wounds but I still worried whether some idiot would let off some just for kicks and start a huge blaze. I see they have several arsonists in the cells, some of them firefighters too and if convicted where someone has died, 10 years + €100,000 although if in prison how would they pay that if they have no assets to seize!
No need for the couple of hundred. Get black buckets - at certain times of the year they are 1 euro in our brico. Drill a hole in the bottom, thread through stout rope. Paint the outside of the bucket with this stuff:
Hang the bucket upside down at head height. From a tree (or something) ideally in the locality of the horsefly (they seem to have their territories. Often near water.) and in sunlight so they can see the bucket.
Works incredibly well.
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Also catches passing postmen and Amazon delivery drivers. 
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I love the way they use an otherwise ‘helpless’ female combined with a bit of eye candy too.
The inference being ‘even she can do it, so how hard can it be?’ 
However they sell it I would love to know how effective it is. But not for me, bites from horseflies average about one or two per year. The secret seems to be to not wait for an attack but, at the slightest tickle of a landing anywhere, whack it within seconds. Works for me.
As regards the ‘storm’. I was awakened at 7am by the gate bell, but only one squark , which usually means a minute break in electricity supply. However to make sure I leapt out of bed, through the living room, kitchen and into the veranda from where I can see the gate. Another squark and single flash as I past it and no-one being there confirmed it.
But the wind was roaring and the rain driving down with a single slight thunder and a very distant flash as I jumped back into bed. When I awoke again an hour or so later all was calm and no movement from the trees. The dried bog that is the bottom pond has only become a slightly watery marsh, but encouraging nevertheless. 
I’ve been using it for years. Highly effective. I finish up with buckets at the end of the season absolutely covered in dead flies.
Thank you Sue, I’ll bear it in mind, just in case my ‘immunity’ deserts me. 
Not the way I saw it. I think most of that is in your head.
Women are a significant proportion of horse owners and riders - this product is aimed at them.
You’re fortunate - horse fly bites can be very nasty indeed.
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Oh dear, I think I was missing a smiley. That was my point, that I disagreed with the way females are often used in this way. I know how bad they are, the bites, I have had a few as I said elsewhere, which is why I am quick on the draw.
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File under ‘Novel Ideas for Interior Decor’…
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Rain! Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
Here in North Deux Sevres, they’ve promised rain and thunderstorms for the morning. We had about 23 spots of rain and that’s yer lot! They say more thunderstorms for this afternoon but methinks they’re telling fibs. We can do with the rain - not had any for absolutely weeks. But strange thing is that when Stuart measured the well water level last night, it had gone up by 0.20m! Bizarre or what?
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Same our way.