First mice, then rats, now a plague of flies General Chat

The horrid sticky mats seemed to have passed on the message as I have not seen any signs of mice lately [I hope I have not spoken too soon]. After a few rats were also stuck [including the one that jumped out of the bin before I could shut the lid and dug its teeth into me] someone put some poison down well out of Tikva's way and I found a couple of dead rats. Nothing has been knocked down from the shelves in the kitchen so I am hoping the rats have gone - the mice were too tiny to have knocked anything down. Again, I hope those were not famous last words.

But we now have a plague of large black flies although how they got through the screens I have on all windows I will never know. I now have all the trissim [louvres] closed all the time, the screens being in the room side of the windows, but the flies are driving me mad. Strangely enough it is only the three back rooms plus my ensuite, my bedroom and the ensuite being the worst, and it is only the back window in my bedroom that is affected, not the front or side windows. As that window is above the head of my bed, I get these bdooly flies disturbing my sleep at night. Do flies never sleep?

Apparently everyone on the Moshav is plagued by flies and even though people have been complaining to the Local Authority, they have not been to spray round the bungalows and Hai at the macolet is doing a roaring trade in fly spray. Unfortunately it does not seem to affect these boogers, or if it does, more keep coming in. I have put sticky mats on the cistern in the ensuite, on my dressing table and one of the chest of drawers in my bedroom and they get covered with flies, but still they keep coming.

And they bite.

Urgh flies! They must be a nightmare, fingers crossed the rats and mice are gone though. I've heard vodka is a good deterrent for flies, try a little mixed with water in a spray bottle. Spray around the windows and on yourself it might help! Even better mix it with an essential oil such as lemon eucalyptus oil. We have the same problem but with spiders

Ugh! Sounds horrible Malka. Eddie can't settle if there is one noisy fly in the room, I don't know how he would cope with a plague. Does Tikva try to catch them?
I don't think fly sprays are good for our health either. I hope they are soon gone, and you are left in peace.

@Yazmin - as I am not a drinker [and hate the smell of alcohol] I do not fancy spraying it anywhere, especially on myself!

@CaroleC - Tikva does try to catch any flies that come into the salon but even though the door is open all day and evening there are rarely any in here. It is just at the back of the bungalow. As she is on her tether all day [same length as Pereg always wore] she can only get through a short way into the back room so cannot get anywhere my bedroom. And those are the two adjoining rooms that are mostly affected - plus the ensuite.

When she goes into her crate at night, even though her crate is in my bedroom, the flies do not bother her as once she has had her little bikkie she curls up on the soft blanket at her sleeping end and zonks off. They are not noisy - just a bdooly nuisance, and I hate them on my face or hair when I am in bed.

Yes I could close the window behind the head of my bed, but they could, and would, come in from the back room. I do close the window in the ensuite at night though as I do not have a security grill across it on the outside. Not possible as the walls are not solid.

The spray I use is Raid - always used it for mozzies, but so far there have not been many - and even though I did not like to use sprays because of Pereg it never bothered her or triggered an episode. It is also one of the few sprays that does not appear to have any odour.

Hopefully the LA will take note of the complaints and finally come out and spray.

Malka, on BBQ days where the door is constantly open, tons of big ugly flies come in. They are biting flies and are a true nuisance. I try to shoo the flies back out the way they came and several are caught by nimble Nigredo (and missed by Jade and Oreo). I have an aversion to sticky traps, but my brother hangs sticky fly tape near the back door on those days and many flies get stuck to it.

Myra - I have searched for those fly tapes but cannot find them anywhere.

Trapped another tiny mouse but only the one, BUT there is at least another rat around as I went into my bedroom yesterday afternoon for something, heard a crash as a bottle of perfume was knocked off my dressing table [which has two sticky mats on it] and saw the rat scurry away behind my wardrobe.

One sticky mat that was on one of the chests of drawers had been turned upside-down and even though I eventually managed to pull it off it has left sticky glue on the top. How I will get that off I do not know.

This morning something that was on top of one of the cupboards in the back room was on the floor, and one of the sticky mats in the kitchen that I now use for flies was also on the floor - sticky side down, of course.

I have lived on this Moshav for almost 21 years now and this is the first year we have ever been plagued by flies. Mice yes, never rats before though.

It is all getting a bit depressing especially as so much has been knocked on the floor and smashed - flies driving Tikva and me mad now - and I still have a swollen finger with teeth marks from when that bdooly rat bit me.

Found some. Amazon UK has them but the only trader who will send to Israel wants three times the price for postage. Thanks but no thanks.

However, AliExpress has the same ones [pack of four] same brand by the look of it, at a lower price and just $1 postage for up to 10 packs, so I have ordered some. Trouble is that it can take up to six weeks to arrive from China. Better late than never though.

I am sorry to hear that you are still having problems Malka. Have you not had a return visit from the public health rodent control man? If you have young rats about, they should be dealt with before they have time to breed.
Of course you know best, but shouldn't you have that finger looked at?

@CaroleC - the ratman from the Local Authority [my neighbour called them] left two large snap-traps. The one he put on top of my large fridge/freezer snapped shut but there was nothing in it. I have no idea where he put the other one. The poison that Hai's friend - I think he is a friend of Hai's father - put down ended up with three dead rats. Once again I have no idea where he put it. It was after the poison killed those rats that my neighbour called the LA because she was scared she might also have rats. I know she has mice as I have seen their droppings on her kitchen units although she swears blind she has never had mice. And no, the ratman has not been back.

My finger is just a bit puffy but OK - it did not get infected B"H but I am still trying to find out whether I need a full series of tetanus shots after the one I was given at the hospital, as it had been years since my last one. They had said something about I should telephone the Ministry of Health to check but I have absolutely no idea where to call, and my neighbour is being rather useless again.*** I also have not been able to see my doctor because the nurse will not answer the telephone, just switches it onto fax, so I cannot make an appointment, and I am not prepared to go and sit there until everyone else has been seen - people that turn up after me, also with no appointment, but get seen before me.

*** The reason my neighbour is being difficult is because she was having problems with the National Insurance Institute about her pension because I had been paying my rent by cheque. Always did it for her father and after he died I gave her the rent, which is every three months in advance. And the NII wanted to know were the money was coming from and why.

So she decided she wanted cash which meant giving her my hole-in-the-wall card so she could draw cash. Problem is that I have deliberately set a limit as to how much can be drawn which meant she had to go to town or a large shopping centre four times. She is always away at weekends, usually Thursday to Sunday, also at other times [she goes to stay with one of her brothers] which meant I had no way of drawing cash if I needed it [my taxi driver usually drew some for me when he came to collect my prescriptions and get them filled]. One time she ended up with my card for over a week.

Anyhow I got onto the one brother who speaks English [he and his wife are the executors of my Will and also have PoA] - they called in and I explained the situation, and ended up giving them a cheque for a year's rent. And my neighbour ended up crying that she had no money now I would not give her the rent directly, even though the arrangement with Yaacov and Tami was that Yaacov would give her money as and when she needed it.

So what with mice, rats and flies, I have had her to cope with.

Apologies for the rant, but I am rather piddled off at the moment.

Oh dear. It never rains but it pours.
For what it is worth, when Charles or I have had bites or injuries, we have only ever been given a single tetanus shot if it has been ten years or more since the previous one. Ram would know for sure, because of the risks in his profession. I know you are an independent character, but I do wish you had a little more support available to you.

I used to have tetanus boosters every five years but having just checked in my ancient address book [odd things noted on the inside front and back covers] my previous booster was in September 1996. Oops. IIRC I was told after that that I would never need another booster. Strange though as when I fell and smashed my spectacles into the side of my eye, just a fraction away from my eye itself, and had to have 20 stitches from my eyebrow to the corner of my eye and across my eyelid, the hospital never gave me a tetanus shot, or any antibiotics.

Carole, if I really really really needed more support I could probably get it, but I do NOT want my life taken over by a social worker. Tzippi, my last one, came to see me maybe once in a blue moon. I know that she only came here once and I have lived in this bungalow for almost 16 years now. She was never available on the telephone, nor did she ever respond to her voice mail. Supposedly I have another one now but I do not know her name or how to contact her, although I am sure my neighbour does.

And I have the comforting knowledge that should it be necessary, Yaacov and Tami have PoA.

So I ordered some packs x 4 of fly strips and guess what - I have not seen a fly all day.

Sticky trapped the whatever it was in my bedroom - I am not sure what it was but I think it was a large-ish mouse and not a small rat [I hope] as it had black eyes and the rats have red eyes.

Much as I hate to do it I deaded it and put the sticky mat plus deaded whatever in a polybag and in the big thick bag and into my wheelie bin for the binmen who will be collecting tomorrow around 5.30am. Luckily I had not tied the big bag that tight [my tied kitchen bin liner went in the big bag and I had other things to go in it] as another whatever was in my bedroom, on the dressing table this time. Also cotched on a sticky mat. Deaded that one and it went into the big bag in the wheelie bin.

Oh, and my neighbour has finally admitted that she has rats although she still insists she does not have and never had mice.

Hope things get better. The only thing that has ant effect on the flies for us is the tape.

Thank you Myra. The fly strips/tape are what I have ordered and I intend fixing them onto the inside top of all windows and the front door. Either by thumbtacks [if I can get any] or maybe just sellotape/scotch tape will do. I have two of those blue plug-in fly/mozzie catch/killers, one in the salon above my monitor and one in the kitchen, but I rarely have heard the zzzzzz when or if a fly goes near them.

Thankfully though today I have not had to spray although I have still kept the trissim [louvres] closed so the place has been in darkness except for the little nightlights. Torches everywhere though. It also seems as if the darkness means that I do not have to set each a/c unit at a lower temperature, so my last electricity bill was far less than I had expected.

[ETA - Magic Jack is blocking me again]

Sent you an email. Oh - and the tape thingies always come with tacks for us. We just tack them to the ceilings. They also catch gnats and moths.

UPDATE

The sticky mats appear to have trapped all the flies - they were covered - and I still have not had to use any of the four new Raid sprays [one in each room]. Plus I have ten packs of 4 fly strips on their way from China!

Mice - I have cotched two mice, or rather the sticky mats have, but that was since last week. No sign of droppings anywhere and nothing knocked down in the kitchen, but there is still a four-legged bar steward in my bedroom, knocking things down on my dressing table. I have put all perfume in a safe place so there is not much on my dressing table, but even though there are now three sticky mats on it, somehow whatever it is manages to avoid them.

Problem - it - whatever it is, then jumps onto the chest of drawers, and somehow also misses the sticky mats on it. And sure enough, one was tipped over and even though I managed - eventually - to get the stuck on sticky mat off, there is sticky stuff all over the top of that chest of drawers. How do you get that sticky stuff off? Hai at the macolet gave me a small bottle of - dunno what it is used for, but looking at the ingredients the first was acetone so I thought that should work. It did not. Just stank the place out.

SIGH

Will it be locusts next?

I am not quite sure how to answer this...

...but, umm, err...

1. We are past Pesah and the ten plagues.
2. Where I live we do not have locusts - although there are sometimes some a bit further south than I am.
   
3. Not many people know this but there are varieties of locusts deemed permissible for consumption under the laws of Kashrut [Jewish dietary law]. While the consumption of most insects is considered to be forbidden under the laws of Kashrut, the rabbis of the Talmud identified four kosher species of locust which may be eaten.

Thanks but no thanks!

I believe that they are actually very tasty, and the survival of our species may depend on their use as a foodstuff at sometime in the future. Fortunately, I think I will have shed this mortal coil by then!

You and me both Carole, you and me both!

But I sometimes think I would like to try some forbidden foods before I shuffle off. Not bacon or ham, that I could not touch, but shellfish? I would really like to know what lobster is like, although could I, would I, ever try it? Probably not.