Cluster Flies!!!

coffeehound

Anyone else never heard the term 'cluster flies' before? Does it just mean a lot of house flies?

G_M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_fly

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/cluster-fly.htm

http://wiltshire.gov.uk/pest-control-cluster-flies

Davesnave

coffeehound wrote: »

Anyone else never heard the term 'cluster flies' before? Does it just mean a lot of house flies?

Everything you could possibly want to know....

http://www.dialapest.co.uk/Data%20Sheets/Cluster%20Flies.html


....and note the warning about bats.

As I said earlier, you really don't want bats!

Davesnave

G_M wrote: »

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/cluster-fly.htm

Typical American overkill! :rotfl:

Apoorwoman

Lord_Baltimore wrote: »

Flies, spiders, tractors, bats, mice, dogs, cockrels, bees, smells...they don't mention this stuff in Escape to the Country.

I hope there are no cows, geese, farmers, sheep, and slurry. *Shudders* It sounds torture .

Oh I love this thread. Does the OP realise that the magnificent beams we have in barn conversions (12-15ft up) harbour the most fabulous cobwebs, the like as never seen in the bog standard home? The secret is to never disturb them but to wait until Christmas and spray them gold.

Lorian

GrahamJeffs wrote: »

We had cluster flies in our attic in our last house. Try Agropharm Fortefog P mini fumers...they work

Second that recommendation. Available on Amazon and Ebay at reasonable prices too.

Fortefog is a convenient way for distributing permethrin insecticide (in the smoke). Do read the instructions.

I've used them against cluster flies in the loft a few times.

I've never conclusively proven it but I think they also don't like the smell of citronella but that's a preventative thing rather than a cure.

Davesnave

Lorian wrote: »

Fortefog is a convenient way for distributing permethrin insecticide (in the smoke). Do read the instructions.....

....And try not to remember that one reason you went to live in the country was to escape air pollution!

Apodemus

Lorian wrote: »

I've never conclusively proven it but I think they also don't like the smell of citronella but that's a preventative thing rather than a cure.

...and painting your gate posts with treacle will stop the elephants from roosting on them at night...;)

halfone

Apodemus wrote: »

...and painting your gate posts with treacle will stop the elephants from roosting on them at night...;)

This is an urban myth.
Elephants love treacle

Re. cluster flies - I had them the first year I was in my house, in a window frame - opened a window and it was like a horror film - piles of them dropped out onto the window sill. They smelt bad too. I brushed them all out, then sprayed the 'inside' bits of the frame with flyspray; redoing it every couple of weeks or so. They haven't come back so far...

They are unpleasant, especially if you're not expecting them, but it's possible to deal with them.

ali-t

Yeah, the dead, dozing and dying mass exodus of flies falling out when i open the velux windows in autumn and winter is gross. No one told me about that before i moved to the country. On the plus side, not many bees or wasps as there are no gardens with flowers.