A cluster fly saga
Cluster Fly Fluster
& The Case Of The Loft Door That Won’t Open
A few evenings ago, my wife complained that she had been bothered by flies in the upstairs bedroom where she had been reading.
The next day she announced that we had a definite fly problem. There were dozens of them on the windows of that same bedroom.
They were a bit dozy and easily captured. So, one by one, she collected them in a plastic tumbler and put them out of the bathroom window.
Once they were gone she went about sealing the nooks and crannies in the sash window, assuming they had entered by that route.
Meanwhile, I hunted for information about fly infestations in late autumn and discovered that they must be cluster flies. Neither my wife nor I had heard of such flies before.
Hearing that peppermint oil, vinegar, and lavender had been found effective in repelling them, my wife filled the room with all three smells.
The sash window was now fully sealed. We felt certain they wouldn’t return.
The next day they were back. How were they getting in?
Perhaps through the shower fan in the bathroom which extracts air into the loft and out through the exterior wall. The flies…
