Villagers fight against mystery 'plague' of flies

5 hours ago

David PittamNottingham

News image — Luke Gascoigne has several levels of methods of dealing with the flies but just wants a permanent stop to the infestations

BBC Man holding fly gun and electric swat — Luke Gascoigne has several levels of methods of dealing with the flies but just wants a permanent stop to the infestations

Villagers are calling for action as a "plague" of flies invades their homes in hot weather.

People living in Calverton, in Nottinghamshire, said hundreds of insects fly into their houses if they leave their doors or windows open in summer.

Resident Luke Gascoigne said he had killed more than 80 flies in his kitchen in one go using a salt gun, which fires ordinary table salt to banish bugs.

What is causing the fly problem and what can be done is being looked into by both Gedling Borough Council and the Environment Agency (EA).

Gascoigne, of Coggan Walk, said sometimes he had seen several flies landing on him at a time.

The 33-year-old said the problem had got so bad, the next-door neighbour's pet rabbit had died of "fly strike", where maggots infest the animal while alive.

Luke Gascoigne Flies on an envelope — Gascoigne and other villagers have been sending evidence of the problem to the authorities

He said he completely emptied the salt gun in one sweep of his kitchen and there were still more flies left over.

"When it starts to get really bad, the [electric fly swatters] keep breaking," he said. "So I thought I needed something that was easier and to kill them quicker, because that can be quite time consuming.

"I actually sit on the sofa with this [the salt gun] because that's... the most annoying time, when you're trying to relax and watch telly... and they're just landing on your arms and legs."

'Flies on the barbecue'

Viv Corcoran, 72, club secretary of Calverton Miners Welfare, said they had tried everything to rid themselves of the flies, but they kept coming back.

"This is more than just the normal fly infestation," she said.

"There's just hundreds of them all the time.

"People sit with beer mats on top of their glasses, we've got fly swatters and fly zappers."

She said two weeks ago they held a community celebration for the youth football teams, and flies descended on the barbecue.

"It was just awful," she said. "There were literally hundreds and thousands of flies, they were just everywhere."

Woman holding fly swat — Viv Corcoran has fly swatters behind the bar to give to customers

Some residents have pointed to a recycling centre at the edge of the village owned by Pro Environmental.

A spokesperson for the company said it had a pest management plan, which included daily fly spraying.

They said this had been brought forward so it happened earlier, to be more effective.

They added: "We are doing everything we can to control and eliminate any pest-related problem in line with our Pest Management Plan (as approved by the EA).

"We take all complaints seriously and want to work with the local community to resolve any matters."

They added they were aware of delays to bin collections in the area.

"We believe this could all be contributing to the fly problem," they added. "The extreme heat that has broken national records will inevitably contribute to the problem across all potential causes."

The EA said it had, following reports, inspected the site.

A spokesperson said: "While we have not determined the source of the issue, we identified permit non-compliances [at Pro Environmental] and have instructed the operator to take action to resolve these issues."

Gedling Borough Council denied there were delays with its collections, and although it was not responsible for all the area's bins, added: "Residential and street bins are unlikely to be the source of the flies."

Regardless of the cause, locals have said they just want it stopped.

Andy Meads, an independent councillor on the borough council, representing the village, said so many complaints were coming into the council and its reporting system was overwhelmed.

He said the problem had started at one end of the village, but had now spread throughout.

"We want the environment agency to categorically state the reason why we've got this plague of flies and to get them to put the measures in place to stop it so we can start having our doors and windows open in the hot weather."