The fly killers

When we were in Scotland, Téo watched my friend Bronwyn gently shoo a fly outside. In our house we squash them he said solemnly.

And squash them we certainly do. Multiple times a day. Every day since we moved to the fly-infested countryside.

C's prefered method is to whack them with a tea towel, but I've gone for the the barehanded method. I stalk them from behind, bringing my hand slowly closer and closer, then whack, I trap them, pick them up, and squash them in the bin to make absolutely sure they're dead.

At first Téo would bounce around excitedly, scaring the fly away. But now he knows to stay still. He freezes and stage whispers There's a fly mummy! Kill it!

His excitement increased after I bought these on Saturday:

Fly-eating plants!!!

We all probably enjoyed a bit too much trapping a fly, then releasing it in the Venus Fly Trap and watching the "jaws" snap shut.

It would be nice to think these plants will solve our fly problem - squashing flies is certainly effective, but it gets a bit depressing to kill five of them first thing in the morning before I've even had a cup of tea.

But I'm not that naive. I know the plants are ornamental and that we need a better solution. I actually bought some fly paper last week, but I don't know where to put it. I don't really want to watch stuck flies struggling while I'm cooking or eating. And I refuse to go the chemical route.

So for the moment we'll stick to squashing and feeding our plants... and take heart in knowing that summer is ending and so the flies will soon be gone. For a few months at least.