Flies ... are others around the country suffering an excess of flies this year?

[John Williamson]

It depends on temperature, but from egg laying to flying away takes from a week to a fortnight, which is why weekly rubbish collectons were introduced in the first place.

[harryagain]

Best solution is electronic zapper but only work well on the dimmness. Other good solution is flypaper. I don't fancy nerve gases.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim Streater saying something like:

Bill the Galactic Hero was much better.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Infintely better.

I love the sequel where he solves the Earth's waste problem by using the state subsidised government InterGalactic Postal Service to post all the scrap to developing planets.

[Nick Leverton]

I think that was in BGH itself, in fact.

I thought the later sequels were much weaker, at least the two of them I've read. Relying too much on "and suddenly something unpredictable happened" - unless you happen to like trekkie crossovers and suchlike ;)

Nick

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have one which was in the bedroom. Trouble is that I would get woken up with a bang-buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-fizzzzzzzz-pop-pop... and it didn't actually seem that good at attracting flies. I didn't use it for long.

I now have several carnivorous plants around the house, and I never see any flies. I did wonder if they get enough to eat, but inspection shows they are catching some flies. A few times, I have watched a fly get interested in the plants, only to be consumed - quite satisfying to watch.

I put them outside on the flying ant day for an extra boost.

I don't think any of mine are quite big enough yet to do this

they have grown much bigger pitchers this year than in the past.