Fly Infestation

Hi All,

My wife & kids are on Condado at the minute for whit week.  She reports that small flies are everywhere - cannot sit out on the patio or leave Patio doors open.  I understand they are Fruit Flies that appear at this time of the year when the fruit drops from the tress.  Anybody know anything about them & how long it lasts for.   She said it is a nightmare this week !!

Hope they are gone by the summer!!

Nick

Hi Nick, this was happening while we were over there a few weeks back.

Your wife is right, they are damn annoying!

The flies don't seem to be particularly interested in us humans though.

WW

And they will be shortly replaced by the normal flies. From June -Aug these flies are a pain in the but.  Last year was by far the worst, caused by a very wet spring. You couldn't eat outside until the it was dark.

it spoils the fun as you are constantly trying to kill them with your fly squatters...

Hi

The same thing happened to us at the beginning of the month!  We found not to keep any fruit out for long(and food but mainly fruit), otherwise it attracted them even more. 

If anyone has any suggestion that's be good as like you say they are blooming annoying!

We returned home last thursday & also met the fruit flies. However I bought plug in`s for the apartment ( tablet form but you can buy liquid type too ) from the supermarket but later, found they were much cheaper in Campasol supermarket

I bought 4, one for each of the 2 bedrooms . one for kitchen area & one for living / dining space. worked a treat. did not detect any smell but the flies evedently did cos the litle blighters soon disapeared. the tablet ones have to be replaced once theblue turns white where as the liquid ones are ok till they run out ( naturally) however cant use plug ins effectivly on the roof terrace so I am going to purchase a boatload of candles. but cannot remember the type I want. I think its citronella i have loads of candle Jars here so will be sending them all over with Allan. on his nextt dcelivery to Condado

Jan

PS> They seem to like beer & wine but not Coke or lemonade.

Sorry folks it looks as if you will have to drink soft drinks if you want  have your liquid refreshment in peace

Jan,

You're right, Citronella candles generally are pretty good for outdoors but you need something bigger than a normal table sized candle.

The best one's to get are from either Homebase or B&Q and they're in a coloured 'Mini Bucket'. Usually around £5.00 each but burn for ages.

Or you could buy a cheap bottle of sweet wine for €3, pour that in the bucket and stick it on your neighbours balcony

Phil ( Only joking folks )

Phil

Thats a great idea but  we like our neibours

thanks for the info Julian . I used to work for a candle party plan company so have lots of candle holders in various sizes. but the £5.00 one from B & Q sound great.

We still have things to have delivered to our apartment , so the purchase of a few of those wont be a problem

Thanks

Jan

Bottle of wine €3 cheap!!!

Just covered my patio with a big 4x4 gazebo with fly netting plus use a big can of spay

Has anyone got any further suggestions for dealing with the fruit flies- apparently the candles just keep blowing out?  I know a fly swat and can of spray are useful recommendations but has anyone found another product that works?

Was thinking of suggesting putting the candles in lanterns but then that would restrict the critronella scent.

Does anyone know how long this problems exists for as we dont remember noticing fruit flies on our previous Murcia visits in the Feb, July and August months?

Phil Tann suggested using a cheap bottle of wine to disrtact then ( he said €3 , who pays that much for a bottle of wine in Spain or have I been here too long now!!)

Fly netting and herbs , we have rosemary mint and basil in gazebo and one of them works, my bet is Rosemary but garden centre said basil. Fan pushes them away and moves scent of herbs,  good sparay before a meal as well.

trying anything  got candles in a glass bowl so protected from breeze

fitting fly screens can keep fruit flies, mosis and ordinary flies out of the house.  Once fitted you can have windows open and a draught through the house whilst not being bugged by the flies

Thanks for the info- we may organise flyscreens for the house when we are over but putting the candles in a glass is a way of deflecting the wind- hadnt thought of that and will pass it on to my son. I suppose as this is an area for agriculture its to be expected- but we didnt consider it.

Hello again

Having been advised by Julianprey that B&Q sell large citronella candles I forgot all about it & Allan has collected the remainder of our things, so to late to buy them now..

So having had a brief and rare brain storm I looked up the plant that citronella comes from, its a grass & is part of the Pelargonium Citosum family.

So I`m thinking. if we could find out if the plant is available in Spain,  we could buy a few & leave them on the roof terrace & maybe have one outside the door too,  this would hopefully remedy the problem.

Is there a gardner out there who could advise me  please

Thanks

Jan

If it's the same kind of flies that we were infested with at La Torre last summer then citronella candles as about as useful as a chocolate teapot, I'm afraid.

We tried them and if anything it seemed to attract even more of the wee fellas.

HI ALL

WE HAVE A THING THAT LOOKS LIKE A TENNIS RAQUET. IT HAS BATTERIES IN  (CALM DOWN GIRLS!!!) IT ZAPS THE FLIES. FUNNY THING SOON AS WE SWITCH IT ON THE FLIES DISSAPER. WE HAVE USED IT IN A PLACE CALLED DUNHAM MASSEY  (NEAR ALTRINCHAM) WHERE THERE ARE MILLIONS OF FLIES. GOING TO TRY IT OUT IN CDA NEXT WEEK. WE BOUGHT IT FROM A LOCAL MARKET. HOPE THIS HELPS. ANYONE FOR TENNIS

                                               DAVE

                                                              JARDIN 5  (ALIAS THE SERENGETE)

Just got back from Condado & the flies were still there, although not as bad as whe we were out a few weeks back. I have tried all the plug ins, fly spray, candles etc to no avail. Still dont know how they are getting in when the doors/windows are shut!! Im hoping the hotter it gets, the less likely they will want to venture out!

Spoke to my brother last night who is out at our apartment and he says that PW were spraying yesterday so hopefully this will reduce the fly problem.

Hi Phil

Do not want to dampen your spirits but spraying by the PW workers was going on through out our last stay which was roughly three weeks ago

If the fly`s are stil there then I doubt if it is making any difference

Jan