I have a problem with small flies in the caravan.
Usually only get two or three at a time, but I think the damn things bite, although they are tiny, rather than small.
They rarely seem to land elsewhere, so swotting is not an option.
I've tried fly spray, but it's hard to get a direct hit, and I don't want to mist the whole lounge/diner each time.
I'm going to call in to the hardware shop in Leyburn later.
Any ideas what to look out for?
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What I've done is to hang a fly screen up over the top half of my stable door,
I'd do the same with my windows if need be, but I just open all the trickle vents instead.
www.amazon.co.uk/Stv-STV229-Window-Fly-Screen/dp/B000M49UH8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309513409&sr=8-1
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At this time of year we get little tiny black things capable of getting inside picture frames or behind the glass of clocks. They also gather in number on the skin while out of doors - particulalry when cycling. Not sure they actually bite but they're certainly uncomfortable on the skin. Known locally as corn flies or thunder flies they seem to appear shortly before harvest time.
Never found a means of controlling them but they only hang around for a few days.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 1 Jul 11 at 10:52
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Thank Dog and Bromptonaut.
A fly screen is an idea, I have a hanging bead screen over the front door, which does a reasonable job of keeping out larger flies, but I suspect these are too small to notice it.
I did wonder if they might have only a short season, and it has been thundery in the last few days.
They seem attracted to me, I suspect that may be perspiration, which would explain why Bromp gets more of them while cycling.
Last edited by: Iffy on Fri 1 Jul 11 at 10:59
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I hate thunder flies, get in your hair when you're hot and sweaty working outside....thanks to elfinblastedsafety you have to be sewn into a yellow reflective vest, which they and every other beasty flying the planet find irresistable.
Would a citronella candle deter them i wonder?
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...to be sewn into a yellow reflective vest...
A few years ago, Sunderland AFC sold a yellow jersey as their second colours.
Fans wearing them on the terraces were pestered by flying insects.
It might have been pre-season, which would have been July.
Last edited by: Iffy on Fri 1 Jul 11 at 13:23
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I've had a constant supply of these small black flies, but only in the bathroom. Because there's nothing for them to survive on, they die off quite quickly if I haven't used the fly spray.
There are some types too that are the result of having house plants - can't remember the name of these particular insects - but seems it's a result of using soil which harbours the eggs (or whatever)
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I used to get these little flies in the flat, too, but they have been eliminated in two ways:
1. My young cat is very fond of chasing and catching them - she is much quicker then me and
2. I got a small insectocutor type lamp, which electrocutes any she doesn't get. It uses very little juice and give a handy amount of light in the kitchen for my nocturnal wanderings
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Move the caravan to Libya.
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>> Move the caravan to Libya.
It's either flies here or barking wild dogs there.
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Goes to show what the experts have always told us - that a no-fly zone is notoriously difficult to enforce.
You could try a Vapona Small Space Fly Killer, but that may not work if yours aren't Small Space Flies. And that's if you can still get it - there was a safety scare over one of the ingredients a few years ago.
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>> 2. I got a small insectocutor type lamp, which electrocutes any
And makes a lovely zapping noise when it does.
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Embarrassingly we had a small fly problem (lots of small flies) in our old place - they originated in the attic. I got one of those Vapona things and declared a no fly zone above the attic circle, put it like this it worked but it did leave a quite punget sharp chemical smell behind - good bit of kit though.
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I had a problem with small flies, so I bought a bigger pair of trousers.
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A bit old fashioned but those sticky rolls that you can hang do attract a good few flies.
I bought one of those electric tennis bat things. Its quite good sport for 10 minutes or so with a sense of satisfaction with every 'kill'.
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>> A bit old fashioned but those sticky rolls that you can hang do attract a good few flies.
Sounds like your school used the same caterers as mine...
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>> >> 2. I got a small insectocutor type lamp, which electrocutes any
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>> And makes a lovely zapping noise when it does.
>>
A large insectocutor would be more fun.
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I had a device called a Zerostat once upon a time, I'd fire it at my records to reduce the static - geddit,
Why doesn't someone come up with a hand-held device that you can zap those pesky blimming fly things with.
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>> Why doesn't someone come up with a hand-held device that you can zap those pesky
>> blimming fly things with.
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They have, its called an aerosol can of fly spray.
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Or a rolled-up newspaper.
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>>They have, its called an aerosol can of fly spray.<<
Yeah, but ... being a crank (health) I wouldn't want to spray fly killer in my kitchen.
I suppose an electro ZeroZapper could be made, but peops would use it on other peops!
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Used a flame thrower on a blue bottle once as a kid with a aerosol and a lighter, a tad dangerous and almost set fire to the curtains.
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The writer William Burroughs used, when living in Mexico and addicted to heroin, to shoot flies on the wall of his room with a .45 automatic.
Of course an obese Mexican house fly raised on beer and tacos makes a big target. Perhaps Iffy and others bothered by the small flies that appear in the warmer months (as they have done for as long as I can remember) should consider something smaller - a long-barrelled single-shot .22 'saloon pistol' perhaps - to keep the noise level down and save money on ammo in these straitened times.
∍:o}
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I read William Burroughs as a kid. I never realized he was a smack head, sort of figures though.
Just read on wiki that he shot his wife in the head with a 45.....accidentally, "Darling, there's a fly on your head"
Last edited by: Pugugly on Sat 2 Jul 11 at 15:31
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It was a glass PU. They were drunk and flying on amphetamine, to which she in particular was devoted. Their son Billy was born addicted to it, and later died young of alcohol (mainly) after getting through two replacement livers.
The scene has been described to me in conversation by at least three people who were either there or inner members of that very louche circle of American bohemians in Mexico City just then. 'Isn't it time we did our William Tell act?' is something more like what she (not he) is alleged to have said before he did the very ill-advised thing. He later wrote that the horrible incident, which marked him for life (but not as badly as it marked poor Joan) was what had made him a writer.
A highly intelligent, cultivated man from a well-off family, Burroughs was addicted to heroin off and on throughout his life but was most emphatically not what you would think of as a 'smackhead'. His attitude to heroin as to much else was scholarly and meticulous, and that slightly prissy academic tone, interwoven with the salty criminal language picked up from the thieves, muggers and junkies he had rubbed shoulders with in New York, gave him his greatest talent which was for comedy. The Naked Lunch seems a bit dated now because it has had so much hidden influence, but it is a screamingly funny book although many readers failed to notice that.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 2 Jul 11 at 16:02
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Hi, have a look at www.phantom-fly-screens.co.uk for fitted roller screens.
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>> fitted roller screens.
Will they stop a .45 slug from a 1911 Navy Colt Automatic though Cookie?
There's been a bit of thread drift.
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Actually if they are suitably floppy, yes they will. Stiff ones are not good.
When I worked in London in the happy IRA bomb days, we had shrapnel curtains.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 4 Jul 11 at 22:25
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When I worked in London in the happy IRA bomb days, we had shrapnel curtains
Most government buildings used to have them, but latterly they were replaced with plastic film on the windows. We asked if we could have tinted film to cut down on the heat build up and hence fan use, but that would cost too much.
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Corn/thunder flies have appeared at home in last few days. Tiny little things about 1mm in length - look like a comma in print.
Loads of them (dead) on bathroom windowcill and son reports one inside his computer's flatscreen.
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>> Loads of them (dead) on bathroom windowcill and son reports one inside his computer's flatscreen.
Where they slowly decompose leaving a feint oily smudge left behind.
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Biologically these things aren't flies at all: they're thrips (sing. and pl. the same, like biceps). They feed mainly on plant juices, using their pointy stylet mouthparts that can also give the occasional pricking sensation on skin, and they like moisture - hence the attraction to perspiration on sticky days. They are notorious for spreading diseases, so if they're biting you, Iffy, watch out for early signs of tomato spotted wilt virus.
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Make your own fly trap with a clear poly bottle, cut in half . Put rotten fruit in bottom, invert top and place on the top of the bottom (!) and seal with tape (pref clear but does not matter). flies get in attracted by fruit and try to get out to the light. As bottle top (inverted) is lower than than the top where light is, flies are trapped,
Makes an ideal wasp trap as well.
My kind of trap - effective , costs nothing and environmentally sound...
Last edited by: madf on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 11:47
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Once you have caught the first 100 billion you might star making an impact on the local thrips population ;-)
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How many trillion thrips can you fit in a bottle?
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1,000,000,000,000,001 when I last counted...
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A small fly problem - CGNorwich
