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10 Bright Stars
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 7:03pm | IP Logged
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Hi all,
Odd question, but is anyone else having an unusually bad year or two with flies in and around their home? we got chickens two years ago and had a little pen for them about 50 feet away from our back door. It didn't SEEM that close due to our having a deck in between us and the chickens. Anyway, we have noticed an increase in flies ever since that year, even though we moved the pen to the back yard and it is well away from the house. We do have two outdoor cats and occassionaly a kid will leave a trash bag outside the back door at night rather than take it in the dark to the trash cans which are also well away from our home. We do have neighbors with horses, donkeys, and sheep next door, but she keeps a very clean pasture, although they do use their manure as compost around the yard, so I don't know, maybe this attracts flies too? Question is, WHAT can we do to really put a dent in the number of flies. Every Sat. my husband just walks around killing flies around our home. It is SO annoying, and today there were about 50 of them flying around my back door and I had to go out spraying bug spray everywhere. Is there a bomb I can put under my porch? Our porch is low to the ground and open underneath, so maybe something is going on under there? It is such a shame because our house is very nice, and the porch is so nice to sit on, but I am grossed out by the flies! We do have one chicken running lose, so I have to get her in the cage with the others, but she is new and I was afraid the others would attack her. So, she is a little "messy" on the porch here and there. Anyway, gross question, right, but I figured some of the more earthy homesteaders would know what to do? Or, just someone else who hates flies as much as I do perhaps? Home remedies? Is this just a bad year for them?
Thanks for any help. It feels sort of "Lord of the Flies"ish around here these days!!    
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Kim married to Bob (22y)
Mom of 11 blessings:
Bobby 19, David 17, Noah 14,
Mary 12, Gracie 10,
Isabelle and Sophia 8,
Gabrielle 6,
William Anthony 4, Joseph 3 and Luisa Marie - born in M
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 7:08pm | IP Logged
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Well I think some years are just worse fly years than others.. when it gets real bad I give up and get the icky nasty sticky fly strips. they decimate the fly population faster than anything else without using poisons around the little kids.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 8:03pm | IP Logged
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We've had a particularly bad year for flies around here too! I've tried several home remedies but have had no success. Tim wants to try a bug light.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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10 Bright Stars
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 8:46pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the replies. I agree about the poison, but I was thinking that if I put it under the porch, for example, that it wouldn't affect the kids. (Just would need to keep the cats out of there though.) Bug light might do the trick. I DO have the ugly fly papers up everywhere! My husband went so far as to hang one between us in the van the other day because it was filled with fruit flies and I told him THAT is where I draw the line since we were going to Mass. How embarrassing!!! (PLus, my toddler touched it and he was screaming and trying to get it off of each hand and if kept sticking. It was pretty funny, actually.) Anyway, I have even hung them outside. Maybe we will have a really cold winter and it will desimate them. I do NOT see any egg larvae around though, so odd!!! Oh well.
__________________
Kim married to Bob (22y)
Mom of 11 blessings:
Bobby 19, David 17, Noah 14,
Mary 12, Gracie 10,
Isabelle and Sophia 8,
Gabrielle 6,
William Anthony 4, Joseph 3 and Luisa Marie - born in M
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anitamarie
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 9:18pm | IP Logged
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Make sure you don't have anywhere they could be laying eggs. Think trash can that leaky trash bag has been in. They love that for their eggs, built-in food source. We had a trash can that this happened in. As soon as we hosed it out, the garage became fly-free. I hope you can figure it out.
Anita
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Donna Marie
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 9:29pm | IP Logged
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I second the watch for places they lay their eggs. Make sure it is very clean around the house and reward the kids for shutting the door 
We are starting to experience an over-abundance of mosquitoes after all of the rain we have been having over the last few months here in NJ. We had road closures all over town today due to streams and the river flooding a bit again. This is nuts. My dh is a letter carrier and I think he is tired of wringing himself out when he gets home...sun...sun...come BAAACKK!! 
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Sept 29 2011 at 10:06pm | IP Logged
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We had a horrid, horrid, horrid week back in August I think. I live in a typical suburban neighborhood, have no pets, trash goes in a closed bin and I have noooooooo idea why we had THE INVASION OF THE FLIES! It freaked me out. All I could think of was the old Alfred Hitchcock movie about the attack of the birds.
Anyway, I called a feed store and she said there was something I could put out in a saucer but when I went in and she saw me with the baby she said no way. It is lethal if ingested in small animals. I don't even remember the name of it. I tried the fly strips and no luck. I tried this liquid stuff in a bag that hangs from a tree or such. I bought it at Home Depot (on recommendation from a neighbor one street over that had great luck with it) but it stinks awful and I had no luck with it.
Finally, the feed store had what's called Bronco Equine Fly Spray. It says it's an insecticide & repellent for use on horses, ponies etc. I figured it wouldn't work on the mass of flies I had but I sprayed around the front and back door and the window sills and within 24 hours they were gone! It says not to use where livestock other than horses are housed. Well, not sure if my kiddos count as other livestock but we used it anyway!  I don't know what's in it but I was looking specifically for something "organic" and considering she was so leary to give me the other stuff b/c of the baby, I figured this was "safe". Anyway, it worked. May be you could find some locally?
Good luck...I ***KNOW*** that grossed out feeling.
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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mathmama
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| Posted: Sept 30 2011 at 7:36pm | IP Logged
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Is it possible the cats are catching things (mice, etc) and storing them under there? Years ago my mom and I had a terrible problem with flies on our back porch/deck. It was from a dead cat under our deck (our neighbors said their cat loved us so much he chose our deck to die under, seriously, she meant this, I guess they go someplace they feel safe). Obviously, this is not your problem, but perhaps the cats are storing their treasures under there??
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Beth, wife to Tom and mommy to 4 beautiful girls:
Therese 11/04
Anna Mary 6/07
Veronica 10/09
Theodora 11/12
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: Oct 01 2011 at 6:59am | IP Logged
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WE've got 'em too! They are so bad this year!
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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).
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4Real Forums : Our Lady of Good Remedy and Care
Topic: Flies!!! Help me stop the invasion!!
