In north-west Rushden, it’s the Season of Flies!
For a number of years, July and August have seen vast numbers of flies invading homes, offices and factories, in the area to the north of Irchester Road and Washbrook Road. The affects rarely spread further south, or east of the Greenway.
The flies arrive when it’s too hot to keep windows closed and they can cause misery.
Kitchens are especially affected, because the heat forces cooks to keep the windows open. The flies then land on any exposed food, ruining it.
In offices, they land on computer screens and workers, tickling and distracting them. At times, it becomes almost impossible to concentrate and work.
During the night, the tiny attackers land on, and crawl over, sleepers. Sleep is interrupted and, by morning, people are grumpy and tired. They spend the day fighting the urge to go back to bed.
Fly-zappers take a scythe of the flying invaders, but it’s never enough, because there are always reinforcements waiting just outside the windows.
Fly-papers are a cheaper defence, but they soon fill up, and again, they only take a small number of the enemy. (See photograph.)
The only guaranteed way to get a good night’s sleep, is to organise a counter-attack with fly-swatters just before bedtime. (This assumes that you’ve closed the windows to keep out reinforcements!)
On hot nights, during heatwaves, that may not be possible, and anyway, spending 30-40 minutes patrolling and swatting, when you’re hot and tired, isn’t great fun.
Curiously, last year, (the year of the Great Fire), the fly season barely happened.
What an odd coincidence!
