Selfsufficientish.com

Well it is that time of year again where the flies are everywhere. So how do you cope?

1. Buy a carnivourous plant (ours has been going strong for a year or two and now gobbles up big flies, it is a bit strange hearing there last whimpers as the plant slowly eats them)
2. Let the spiders live, we have a few cobwebs around the house that I am happy to keep as they are doing a great job.

I've found that three 2" rubber bands linked together are an excellent "fly pinger" - hold one end tight - haul back for tension - aim at fly, let go - splat! 8)
Messy, but highly effective!
In similar vein, we were plagued with superwasps one summer (big nasty things that fly straight at your face) - wait till they settle, then shoot with a blast of air from an air rifle from around 4-5" - they disintegrate quite convincingly!
Apart from that, good old flypapers work well, but are rather unsightly - and as I found out at 2am last night, a deftly wielded rolled up newspaper is quite good for mosquito splatting - every time I was dropping off, there was this ominous "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" of them circling - light on, leap around on bed mozzie splatting!

Live and let live. Keep food covered but otherwise just ignore the buggers. They'll go away again when it starts to get cold.

Make sure you empty the kitchen bin and compost bucket regularly.

Put up fly screens on windows and get those groovy retro seventies bead curtains on doors.

Mosquito nets.

My dad who was in the navy said that in the tropics mosquito nets are absolutely essential, and if you forgot or left the least gap then the blighters would get in and bite you all night. However if you fell into bed so drunk that you couldn't even remember to get undressed, never mind arrange the mosquito net properly, then you didn't get bitten at all. Perhaps they don't like the smell of drink on you.

Keep a pet frog.

hire out my son. He has an uncanny ability to catch flies and keep them alive while doing so. Trying to instill in him a sense of not being cruel to them and taking off their wings though

My Mum says that if you eat one of those yeast based spreads (can't remember whether it's marmite that's made of yeast) on your toast for a week before going away, the smell of the yeast in your blood puts off the mosi's.

Mind she also used to say that if the wind stopped while I was pulling a face it would stick

So I'm a bit sceptical, but you could try it!.

When outside we use candels with citronella in them, it does seem to help.

apparently the yeast thing is to do with the vitamin b which is present and also works against the dreaded scottish midge

not sure how it works tho

bazil wrote:apparently the yeast thing is to do with the vitamin b which is present and also works against the dreaded scottish midge

not sure how it works tho

No way! I hate those spreads but I might try and force myself to eat them if it will halt the midge attack on my person!

Clare

I don't think it'll work for yer Scottish midges. I'm an inveterate Marmite eater, but it has never stopped me getting bitten to death every time I visit up there.

It would have to be too good to be true. My friend says the best way is just to ignore them and let yourself get bitten; apparently eventually your body gets used to it and you don't react to them anymore.

I tend to try and cover up as much as possible when they're out though!

Clare

Being one of those people who sometimes gets horrible bumps that take weeks to clear up from mosquitoes, I don't think I fancy that approach!
I do get a flicker of paranoia too! - if you go round the graveyards in our area (not wierd, photographing weddings), and read the gravestones, some areas have loads of youngsters in them, in others, there's loads who had a good run - upon enquiring of a local historian as to the reason, he pointed out that the high number of early deaths was often due to "the ague" - malaria to you and me!- down on the marshes where they abound, it is very marked!
Apparently, there are many cases on record of men from the area having had a succession of wives - they'd marry a girl from the Weald (the higher, relatively mosquito-free area), take her down to the marshes - after a couple of years, she's succumb to the ague, to be replaced by another!

Get a good natural insect repellent.... I've got a lovely neals yard one... it smells rather strong.. but it's not unpleasant.

Always be in the company of a friend who is even more prone to insect bites than you are - they appear to like some flesh more than others

Use a crystal deodorant stick on any bites you do happen to get - WOW the relief is instant. Can't remember where I heard that - it was on one of the boards/forums but THANKS to the person who posted it, wherever you are.

ooh yeah... the beaded curtains... make one out of corks :D

I hate marmite too - bleuch.

Kirsty - my son catches flies too. He's very useful to have around

I'm still being bitten despite putting Jungle Formula all over me. How do these things always manage to get inside your clothes?

Apparently the answer to all biting insect problems is Avon's Skin so Soft (whatever that is exactly). Trouble is I don't know any Avon Ladies!

I'm one of the people that gets taken along in order to attract the bitey things away from other people & I get bites that swell up & itch like hell. Keeping covered up is my only answer for those blighters.

On flies generally - I am in the, rather long & protracted, process of making a fly curtain out of corks. Friends are doing stirling work in supplying me with corks. Trouble is, they're also presenting me with other rubbish to see if I have any ideas - it could easily get out of hand.

Ranter..

You could try your local scrapstore for corks... or ask on freecycle... I did that on my local freecycle and received loads of them.

basil, sage or lavendar plants. flies, mossies, moths and midges hate 'em.