Those first couple of buzzes confirming the entrance of a new fly to the room can be surprisingly annoying – especially when you’ve just settled down to watch TV. And this is definitely happening to me more this summer.
I’m not the only one. Flies are absolutely everywhere right now: around the house, in the street, and apparently everywhere else too. While I was watching the comedian Daliso Chaponda live last week, he had to briefly stop the show to see off a fly that had been whirling around his head for 10 minutes.
“Personally, I’ve noticed a lot of flies,” Seirian Sumner, Professor of Behavioural Ecology at University College London, tells me. “Any reports on how insects are doing are purely anecdotal at the moment because we’re only halfway through the summer. But anecdotes are valuable – people notice insects.”
Her PhD student, Femi Benny, an expert in flies and wasps, says there is “no doubt about the increase in the fly population this year”. She points out that the record May heatwave and repeated heatwaves since have created ideal breeding conditions — a fly develops from an egg to an adult in about a week when it’s hot, compared to a fortnight or more when it’s cooler.
This means that each generation breeds again sooner and numbers explode. Meanwhile, the hot weather means food rots faster, creating a stronger smell that attracts yet more flies. Anecdotal evidence from the experts suggest there’s been an increase in house, bluebottles, fruit, cluster and drain flies, among others.
Apart from the heat, the other main reason why these flies are on the increase is a sharp decline this summer in the wasps that eat them. Many of the wasps that remain are also reported as being much smaller than normal.
Again, the evidence at this stage is anecdotal. But Professor Sumner says she’s noticed a sharp decline. “I’ve noticed it acutely, because my students need wasps for their experiments, and we simply can’t find them.”
Once again, heatwaves are largely to blame. Spring is a key time of the year in the wasp calendar when the queen wasps emerge from hibernation to start their nests alone, carrying out all the nest building, egg laying, foraging and brood rearing. But they experienced a cool, damp, erratic spring in which many of them perished, followed by a heatwave that took another huge toll on them.
While these low wasp numbers might make picnics more enjoyable, their decline is highly concerning because they are key pollinators of flowers and crops, such as carrots, pears, figs, sunflowers and daisies. They also process organic waste, such as fallen fruit and human food waste, feeding on them and returning key nutrients to the soil. And, of course, they keep fly numbers in check.
There is another reason why many are seeing more flies in their homes. And that’s quite simply because we’re opening our doors and windows more to try to cool down in the hot weather. The flies then come in for shelter, water and food.
The trouble is, apart from being a nuisance, houseflies and bluebottle flies carry bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli, listeria and campylobacter, that can contaminate food and cause illness in humans. They carry this bacteria on their legs, feet, and body hairs or spread it through regurgitation; with even a single fly able to carry a significant load.
To give flies their due, they do also pollinate many food crops, their larvae decompose dung and plant waste and they’re a key food source for birds, bats and amphibians. But they can still be a bit of a nuisance in the home. So what can we do to keep their numbers down?
The first thing to do is to eliminate whatever it is that is attracting the flies as they are not drawn at random. The chances are that bins, food waste, pet mess, compost or some other decaying organic matter is what brings them as they look for a spot to lay eggs. Get rid of any rotting food, the residue inside a drain or a dead animal in a cavity, and the flies will have nowhere to breed.
When it comes to dealing with flies that are already here, The Wildlife Trusts’ invertebrate expert Vicki Hird’s top tips are to use fly screens as curtains on windows and doors to stop them getting in — meaning you can still keep your windows and doors open. Fans are another good idea, as they cannot fly well in moving air, she adds.
Flies are repelled by essential oils like eucalyptus, lavender, or peppermint so she advises people to put this around windows. You can pick up essential oils for around £10. Some plants such as basil, mint, or rosemary also repel them and these can be particularly useful in outdoor seating areas and kitchens.
Finally — and this definitely won’t be for everyone — house spiders love to eat flies; so rather than getting rid of them, why not welcome them with open arms?
We may have to put up with heatwaves, but that doesn’t mean we have to put up with the flies they bring. And with Hird’s advice maybe, finally, I can now watch TV in peace.
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