Hello. I’m living in Loire region and it’s cold - so why are there so many flies?! In the summer it was hideous but I thought they would be gone by now. Every time we open the front or back door they swoop in. They have mutated into flies that don’t die! I trapped one in my freezer and many hours later it flew out! Please tell me it’s not only my house ?
We seemed to have many more flies than normal in Gironde.
This year for the first time we put up a Red Top Fly Trap from Amazon, it caught thousands of flies and lasted all summer by topping up the liquid every couple of weeks.
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We have been inundated and have no idea why. We live in Sarthe, north of the Loire, and we still have flies trying to get indoors for the winter.
I used these as well, and although I did catch a zillion flies, the stench of the traps was so bad that I got serious complains from my guests, and I had to remove them. I did hang them far away from the house (as far as the leaflet said) and then moved them even further, but it was hidious, like the septic tank had exploded. Sorry to say, I hoped it would be a great product, but not for me.
So it’s not just my house then! Phew. Let’s hope they will disappear as it gets colder. Very frustrating though
Good to know. Thanks!
Thanks. Will check out options - they driving us mad and they keep flying directly at our heads!
I was expecting the Red Top Fly Traps to absolutely stink but I could only smell them from about 3m.
Hang some LIDL fat balls, they attract birds and they eat loads of flies!
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I came down this morning to find dead/dying flies in the lounge. I am
hoovering them up every day at the moment, less and less each day granted,
but they are a pest.
You’ve either got cluster flies, which live in gaps between wood, windows, etc., which could be zapped if you use a fumigator bombe (available from DIY shops) first thing in the morning before they’re active. Or they’re outside flies because it’s warm and damp in which case you either use traditional repellents or Red Top fly traps. Red Tops are excellent but the secret is to put them up in March when the eggs are hatching and female flies are drawn to the traps, and then keep these traps going all summer or replace them. It’s a bit of a trick to find the right spots (we have three in the garden) so that they are close enough to the house to attract flies in that region but far enough away so the pong doesn’t intrude. But it’s fly season all round. And ladybird season (we have zillions in the window cracks). And green stinky bug season (couple of trillion here too). Plus black hoppy-bug season as well (just emptied two out of my garden shoes!).
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I love the descriptions “green stinky bug” and “black hoppy-bug” - excellent.
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We still have flies and some of them bite!
Shield bugs and a new one with long feelers and a brown body, not Capricorns. Ladybirds too.
We live in South Burgundy.
We use moth balls on a jam-jar lid between the shutters and the windows to keep down having bugs shelter there. This does reduce the bugs trying to some through windows.
We also use a wasp trap (with diluted beer/wine) down the garden to draw them away from the house. It is always full of dead flies.
We don’t have any like them Jane. They sound horrible!
I have just found out that the strange insects we have are Western Conifer Seed Bugs. Also called stink bugs.
Sometimes they also smell of apple if you squash them.
Our neighbour has a small pine plantation behind her house and she is inundated with them, both in the house and her greenhouse.
Wikipedia says that they can cause a problem as sometimes they can pierce PEX tubing, whatever that is.