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

On 11 Oct 2005 02:26:36 -0700, wrote:

| 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.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
The London suicide bombers killed innocent commuters.
Animal rights terrorists and activists kill innocent patients.

wrote
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.


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

TheScullster wrote:
wrote

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.



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


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.

wrote in message
oups.com...
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

Sounds like the prelude to Nightmare on Elm Street.

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

Rusty wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

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


Sounds like the prelude to Nightmare on Elm Street.

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

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Rusty wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

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


Sounds like the prelude to Nightmare on Elm Street.

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

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 ) I think it was called Vesuvius, but you'll find them with
Google too.

Peter