[Dizzycow]

What's the best way to get rid of annoying flies in the house? We don't leave food lying about, but the house is quite warm. They're just little flies which hover around in a couple of small areas, driving me mad. I don't want to use fly spray and fly paper didn't attract them. Any ideas?

[Fleecewife]

You could try those yellow sticky traps sold for use in the greenhouse.  I have banned them from here because they catch everything that flies including lady birds, bees etc and it is impossible to rescue anything once it's stuck, but for the fly problem you describe they might work.

[AengusOg]

They sound like fruit flies, (Drosophila). They are annoying and seem to appear every summer. Maybe keep fruit in the fridge or under a veil.

[Dizzycow]

Bigger than fruit flies, smaller than house flies. I'll look into sticky yellow things! Thanks.

[Sandy]

I put fly paper in our chicken shed and it got stuck to one poor chickens wings and in my hair, they are very cheap and very sticky, I suppose the odd one or two in strategic places may help!!

I lived near a hawthorn hedge boundary and that was really bad for attracting BIG flies, they of course will also be around in the surrounding fields on crops etc...those thunder flies (not sure of their name) are horrid when it comes to harvesting, all you pictures and clocks get full of them. You may have fruit flies so you could do with some local bats clearing them, not sure about having bats flying around the house, possibly worse than a few flies!!!!! There is also those electric fly traps that shops and restaurants have!!!!! If you shut the house up in the evening and leave an electric bug trap on while in bed, you should get rid of the ones already in the house, the main way to stop them comming in is close windows and doors etc

[Dizzycow]

Fly paper in the hair...eek! I hoovered them up today, glad nobody saw me rushing around waving the hoover in the air! 

[princesspiggy]

lol 

[Sandy]

I think other chicken keepers have tried fly paper and thier chickens became little parcels...horrid sticky stuff and I walked into the fly ridden papers every time I went into the shed....soon got rid of them but they help!!

[SallyintNorth]

If you know of something the flies really like to eat you could try a jamjar trap.  I saw this done to catch wasps but I don't know whether it would work for flies. 

Put something they will like to eat in the jar - preferably something sticky, for wasps they were using jam.  Make a hole in the lid - bigger than the insect, but not much - and screw the lid back on.  Suspend the trap where the insects are likely to be.