DIY Fly Nets Anyone!?

[r.rain]

Hello All

I have a problem with flys in my loft, the house is old 1869 and has no felt and is just slate roof. When we first moved into the house there were literally piles of dead flies at the windows. We have been living in the place for a year and a half now and every known again I give the loft a good spraying of fly spray to kill the buggers. We have since renovated the whole place and the flys are contained in the loft space, makes working up there real nice like something from a horror movie with flys butting into your face every couple of seconds. Anyway the problem is my lights in the wetroom (again!) the flys actually get in the downlights and literally block all the light up, nice! there are literally 30 - 40 small flies in each light nearly every week that need cleaning out after they burn to a crisp.

To stop this I want to be able to put a netting of some kind over the lights. Can anyone recommend something that will be safe to use to do this? obviously there is a fire issue here. I was thinking an old fishing net type of material, any thoughts on this? I would need to make sure the netting stayed well away from the light itself, maybe a large sieve would do over each light?

Anyone collect dead flies? :)

TIA

Cheers

Richard

[Dave Fawthrop]

| Hello All | | I have a problem with flys in my loft, the house is old 1869 and has no | felt and is just slate roof. When we first moved into the house there | were literally piles of dead flies at the windows. We have been living | in the place for a year and a half now and every known again I give the | loft a good spraying of fly spray to kill the buggers. We have since | renovated the whole place and the flys are contained in the loft space, | makes working up there real nice like something from a horror movie | with flys butting into your face every couple of seconds. Anyway the | problem is my lights in the wetroom (again!) the flys actually get in | the downlights and literally block all the light up, nice! there are | literally 30 - 40 small flies in each light nearly every week that need | cleaning out after they burn to a crisp. | | To stop this I want to be able to put a netting of some kind over the | lights. Can anyone recommend something that will be safe | to use to do this? obviously there is a fire issue here. I was thinking | an old fishing net type of material, any thoughts on this? I would need | to make sure the netting stayed well away from the light itself, maybe | a large sieve would do over each light?

Have you thought of an Ultra Violet fly zapper like they use in food shops. They conveniently collect themselves in the tray. Get a big one not a toy.

[TheScullster]

wrote

Richard

Having had wasps in the loft, I was mindful of this when I fitted spots in the bathroom. These back covers are available for purchase and, if fitted in a kitchen or similar, I think you are supposed to consider the loss of fire seal that you cause when fitting the lights in the first place. The posh type I believe fill with fire retarder in the event of fire.

Not expecting a fire to be likely in our bathroom I used the following:

Stainless steel coffee/tea containers. Mesh cover thingies used to stop fat spraying from frying pan. Cut the top off each canister and cut out and stuck a circle of mesh over using super glue and tile adhesive. The mesh is fine so allows heat out but not flies in (may depend on size of your flies!!!) Cut notch in bottom edge of canister for cable. Stuck canister down over light fitting in loft with small bead of plumber's mait.

Total cost approx £8

HTH

Phil

[Richard Conway]

I have read on this group of people using upturned terracotta (sp?) pots for this...just cover the small drain hole with some kind of mesh.

[Rusty]

Sounds like the prelude to Nightmare on Elm Street.

Beware of strange noises from behind unlikely little doors in the basement.

[Lobster]

Yeah, it sounds a bit odd! If I were you I'd be trying to find out why there are so many flies and removing the cause, rather than blocking their progress through the lights. Sure you haven't got any corpses up there? The life cycle of flies is a matter of days IIRC, they lay their eggs in something festering; ie sounds like they are hatching in your loft.

Where's that Mary Fisher when you need her?!

David

[Peter Taylor]

Mary would certainly know more than me about this, but they are called Cluster Flies. Put that in Google and you'll learn lots about them and how to get rid of them. They're very common, I get them in my roof too. They do not indicate there's anything dead or rotten, they just come in to hibernate through the winter.

I used a smoke generator greenhouse fumigator a few years ago to get rid of them. It's like a firework, you light the blue touch paper and stand well clear :o) I think it was called Vesuvius, but you'll find them with Google too.

Peter