How we did with the flies. By Bessie

So we have been literally infested with flies this summer, mainly house flies but also blue bottles, mosquitos and moths.   We've never had it so bad, typical as this is the one time the house needed to look really good.  So we asked for advice and we looked on the internet.  We have tried a couple of things so we thought you might like to know how we got on with them:

1.     Swatter.   The minihuman boys are a better aim than Mummy that's for sure, she even hits flies like a girl.   The manage to get about 5 in a swatting sitting, Mummy gets one if she's lucky.

2.     Candles.   We thought maybe the flies wouldn't like the heat or the smell.  But I think that probably only applies to lavender or citronella cos when we lit every single candle in the house (that's at least 14 candles on the go at once) they were still flying round everywhere.  And then a gust of wind caught the candles in the dining room and all four of them just blew down to half their height instantly and there was wax EVERYWHERE.  It was all down the candelabra, all over the tablecloth and the chairs.  What a mess.
So we went down the garden centre today to get lavender or citronella but all the citronella said they were for outdoor use only and they didn't have any lavender.   There was a lemon lavender but it smelt more lemony than lavendery.   On the subject of lavender maybe we will cut some sprigs off the bush in the garden and tie them to the light fittings to see if that works.  Although I'm sure Aunty Sally tried that a few years ago with little success.

3.     Washing up liquid.   Apparently if you put an inch of washing up liquid and an inch of water in a jar it will attract the flies.  It has to be the fruity smelling stuff though, they don't like the floral.  So we left apple scented in a jar overnight and it didn't attract a single fly.

4.     Vinegar.   We were told cider vinegar is best but we haven't got any so we put a mixture of balsamic vinegar and malt vinegar in a jar and left it overnight.  When we came downstairs the flies were dipping their ciabatta in the balsamic and discussing their last holiday in Provence.  Needless to say none of them were dead.

5.     Fly paper.  We bought a pack of 4 from the garden centre for £1.79.  It's probably cheaper in the supermarket or at the pound shop but we were in the garden centre at the time.   We hung one up from the light fitting in the dining room and within an hour there was one dead housefly attached to it.   No more so far but it's a start.

6.     Carnivorous plant.   We bought a pitcher plant.  It's a Nepenthes Ventrata.   We hung it up in the doorway of the dining room, for no reason other than because we couldn't think of anywhere else indoors to support a hanging basket so it's on the curtain rail.  Anyway I don't know if it's working or if just having something in the doorway is distracting them or if they are scared looking at the dead fly on the fly paper but there's not a single (live) fly in the house right now.   It's just started raining for the first time in three weeks so you'd think they would all have come in.

In conclusion the fly paper works, the pitcher plant seems to be working but we don't know if they'll all come in a different way if we open a window in another room.   I'll let you know....

In other news the humans went to the garden centre, like I said.  Apparently dogs aren't allowed in but the minihumans told me they say two westies in there.   Mummy says yes but two little westies is not the same as three big noisy bassets.  They looked round and chose some plants for the new house.  Unfortunately everything was on sale today but when we move it won't be.  In fact you probably won't be able to find half the plants they want like blackberry bush and rhubarb.  As well as these they chose a jasmine for the front porch and some miniature roses and hostas for the bed by the gate.   Then they went round to the pet shop and Daddy changed his mind...again...about the chickens.  I think (today) the agreement is that we can have them so long as Mummy buys them, buys their house and run and all their foodies forever and agrees to clean them out every week.  She says OK she will do that.   Tom picked a chicken with fluffy feet.  Mummy said she wanted to call it Funny Feet but Tom said that was a silly name so she said "OK Julie" and for some strange reason he said, "OK Julie the chicken it is."   Mummy picked a spotty chicken, she said she will call her chicken Spot.  Daddy was making rude comments to the chickens about fattening them up for Christmas so the others had to pull him away cos the chickens were getting offended.

Then they went in the shop and on the way they passed some red slider turtles swimming about in the outside pond.  Mummy looked at Daddy and opened her mouth and Daddy just said "Absolutely not" and walked into the shop.   They want to buy a new filter for the pond cos they are leaving the one we have here, well it has been there six years.  And they want to make the pond at the new house much bigger so they decided they need a massive filter.  Mummy stupidly suggested that you could make one yourself for much less than they are to buy, with a big plastic box and lots of filter media in compartments.  "There's a project for you," said Daddy.  Mummy said she would try but she bit worried she might not be able to do such a complicated job.