Yes, there are a lot of flies around at the moment – but there are things you can do to tackle the issue.
Jane McCarrison from pest control and garden products firm Kiwicare told Breakfast this morning: “There are absolutely heaps of flies this year.
“The reason for it is that we’ve had the perfect conditions leading into summer … damp weather conditions and heaps of humidity. We’ve got this absolute breeding ground for flies and lots of other insects.”
And in the next few months, New Zealand would be going through a hot, dry summer, she said.
“That means that flies usually that are knocked down with rain are having these long breeding cycles. We’re not getting that rain to knock them down, so we’re gonna see heaps of flies.”
Different flies were attracted to various things, McCarrison added.
Common house flies were attracted to rotting compost, mulch and clippings, she said. “They come in through the home looking for your normal rubbish bin, so any sort of compost and that sort of stuff.
“If you’ve got great lids on your compost bins, you’re fine, you’re not attracting them.”
Blowflies were more attracted to rotting meat and animal waste, McCarrison said.
Okay, how do you get rid of them?
“Three easy steps: Stop them at the source, kill them and get them out of your home, and then protect and prevent them,” McCarrison said.
“Stop them at the source — we like to clean up. You’ve got to make sure and be vigilant in summer that every couple of times a week, you’re cleaning your benchtops, you’re checking your bins,” she continued. “Keep good lids on them.
“Clean out the bin juice, make sure your bins are cleared, and then keep those tight lids, it stops that attraction into our homes.”
It was also a good idea to keep wheelie bins away from the front door, she added.
“The second one — around killing them — you can use stuff like your trusty old fly spray, you can use an automatic dispenser … and then the other trick which we use, which a lot of people don’t know about, is putting a bug bomb through the home.
“Couple of hours, come back in, open it up, wipe down any food surfaces, and you get rid of those flies for about six months.”