Flies! Bloody flies!

[Tom M]

That's it! Time to call upon the YACF collective wisdom...

Have moved into a new house with a converted loft - lovely, but is seemingly a very convivial place if you're a fly. It seems that every day there's usually about 5-6 of the buggers about. These are 'dispatched', only for more to take their place. Frankly it's getting on my tits!

They seem to like the dormer window best, though I guess that's the light. There also seems however to be a few outside of there too glanced on occasion. We've no idea where they're coming from as can't find any obvious source.

All thoughts greatly appreciated.

[pcolbeck]

Dead bird in the chimney ?

[woollypigs]

Farm next door? I was at my uncles place when a child and killed 25 of the little buggers in an hour an it did not look look like I did, mind it was summer.

[Wowbagger]

What sort of flies?

We rarely get flies in this house. An occasional bluebottle, which keeps the dog entertained for a while until I splat it and he chews it up and spits it out, but I don't recall seeing a proper housefly since we've been here (nearly 15 years). That's a bit odd really. They were ever-present at my mum's house.

[Tom M]

Think they're common house fly types - The dead bird idea is an interesting thought, but still can't think how they could get in. There's no open fireplace up here, and it's all been plastered out. They would have to be crawling through whatever kind of void is left.

[Jurek]

Dead bird in the chimney ?

I'll second that - dead something, somewhere.
I had a similar problem in a previous flat.

Seal the room. Seal your mouth & nostrils (I used a 'proper' paint sprayer's mask with filters) and give the room a thorough blast with a can of fly killer (Sorry - I don't remember which type I used, but it was readily available).
Close the door and leave the room unopened for at least an hour.

When you return, the corpses will have collected around wherever the flies are entering the room.

You've then to make the decision as to whether you need to rip out chimney breasts / floorboards, or whether further blasting with the toxins in the immediate area will suffice. 

Edit - in one instance there was something dead under my floor, in another a bird had somehow jammed itself into the barge boards and expired there.

[Riggers]

Hmmmm, interesting one this. Do you 'blow off' a lot Tom? If you do, this may well be the 'attractant' that the little blighters are swarming to. If you feel the compulsion to 'let fly' so-to-speak, then my advice is to get out of the house each time. See how this goes, and if the problem persists, then put a cork in it.

Hope this helps.

[Zoidburg]

We have the same problem at work

Its dead rats.

Have the council been putting poison down? The rats eat it then crawl away somewhere nice and warm, then they die and decompose in the roof space or between the floor boards. Rats like to climb so I wouldnt be surprised to find them in a loft conversion, I have found two at work that have done for them selves by falling from the steel frame of the timber shed. The second one wasnt quite dead yet when I found it - a shovel solved that problem.

[Riggers]

"Father, I'm not feeling so well"

Zoiders: "Mother! Fetch my shovel!"

Firm but fair is his watch word.

[Tom M]

Have you had your tablets today Mr Riggers? That's right, the blue ones. No, not under your tongue, all the way down, there's a good chap.

Well, a peer out of the velux window thing seems to reveal what I would imagine to be an uncommonly large amount of flies buzzing about in the general roof region. No access to check any of this out however, so will have to try and stop their ingress somehow. Window is pretty well sealed, so can't see how they might get in there, but may have to try some extra strips of foam insulation as can't see any other point of access into the loft.

[Zoidburg]

"Father, I'm not feeling so well"

Zoiders: "Mother! Fetch my shovel!"

Firm but fair is his watch word.

You do seem to be looking a bit under the weather yourself old chap...

[pcolbeck]

The other thing it might be is cluster flies. They had problems with those in a village hall near us. They seem attracted to windows too.

[Tom M]

Ooo! Them's the buggers I think.

Take off and nuke 'em from orbit etc.

[Zoidburg]

Worst case scenario

A serial killing builder did the loft conversion and some poor souls body is now part of the gable end wall.

Thats what the flies are coming from.

[Tom M]

Well, once the corpse had rotted away then there would be no more flies. These buggers may well come back every year by the look of things.

I did wonder why I keep seeing that little girl on the tricycle going up and down the landing...

[Jurek]

Well, once the corpse had rotted away then there would be no more flies.

That was the only option available to me with my ex-bird in the barge boards.
Surprisingly it didn't take them that long to pick the carcass clean - maybe as long as two months - but it was much later, and warmer, in the year - May or June as I recall.
The interim measure to deal with those that came indoors was a couple of old - fashioned fly papers strung from the ceiling.
Not pretty to look at but at least it gets them out of your airspace and you know where they are.

[Kathy]

Farm next door? I was at my uncles place when a child and killed 25 of the little buggers in an hour an it did not look look like I did, mind it was summer.

25 in an hour? That's not trying!

A couple of summers ago there was an epic plague of flies on the entire village and I averaged one-a-minute over the course of two hours.* 

Then the fly swat broke. 



_{*I know, 'cos I counted}