![\"Large](\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Flies2.jpg\")
<\/a>This is\u00a0Doris the spider.<\/p><\/div>\n
According to the Whangarei Leader (and who am I to argue), the real cause\u00a0is warm, wet, humid weather, which has turned\u00a0Northland into\u00a0fly orgy central. And apparently the local nasties didn’t hold\u00a0back.\u00a0They’ve been breeding like… Well — flies.<\/p>\n
There were so many of the little buzzers we resorted to\u00a0fly spray, something we usually avoid for fear of poisoning\u00a0ourselves and our collection\u00a0of useful house\u00a0spiders (including Doris who lives under the outside sill of the ranchslider). This time\u00a0though the Forbearing Husband and I gave in. Four\u00a0whole cans of neurotoxins were dispersed around\u00a0the house over the course of a week. I feared for our health, but meanwhile the flies\u00a0kept\u00a0right on flying (see previous posting\u00a0on the surprising virility of Northland pest\u00a0populations<\/a>). In desperation I resorted\u00a0to the time honoured\u00a0‘bash them with a newspaper’ technique.<\/p>\n This is a random picture of doughnuts. It’s hard to find acceptable pictures for a post on squashing\u00a0flies.<\/p><\/div>\n That was\u00a0a week ago, and I’ve since become completely\u00a0addicted to slamming flies. It’s better than any computer game, and an\u00a0investment of 15 minutes or so a day keeps the house mostly pest\u00a0free. Additional and unexpected benefits have been\u00a0(1) a distinct\u00a0improvement in my aim (anyone for tennis?), and (2) cleaner windows, since even a housekeeper of my dubious calibre\u00a0can only stand so many bloodstains on the glass.<\/p>\n During\u00a0my endeavours I’ve noticed that some\u00a0flies are definitely smarter\u00a0than others. There are those that\u00a0taunt me by sitting on my\u00a0newly clean windows, no doubt sensing my reluctance to generate fresh\u00a0smears. Some\u00a0alight only on surfaces I cannot bash heartily with\u00a0my folded Supercheap Auto flyer swatter —\u00a0my laptop, the feijoas in\u00a0the fruit bowl, the Forbearing Husband’s latest scratchings; others play dead only to\u00a0reanimate; and some waste my time by arranging\u00a0their dead bodies\u00a0on the floor in such life like positions that try to I kill them all over again. All in all I’m a bit worried\u00a0that my missed shots may be inadvertently hastening evolution of a more wily version of musca domestica. The Super Fly.<\/p>\n Anyone\u00a0else out there with\u00a0a fly swatting\u00a0obsession? Don’t be shy, you’re among friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For those of\u00a0you who don’t live in the country, here’s a\u00a0reason to feel smug. We’ve had\u00a0a plague of flies. Initially I wondered whether my rather\u00a0casual\u00a0attitude to cleaning had created a fly colony somewhere in the house. I was relieved to… Continue Reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Donut-1.jpg\")
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