Cluster Flies
© John Bisset / The Timaru HeraldVile: David Curry, aka The Exterminator, at a Maungati home with some of the cluster flies that are plaguing South Canterbury.

A thick swarm of small, hairy, fatty critters are invading homes all over South Canterbury in plague proportions.

Cluster fly season has returned with a vengeance, leaving weary homeowners vacuuming daily and battling with sprays to keep the thousands of mites from taking over their home.

David Curry, of Timaru-based company The Exterminator, said the phone had been running red hot.

He described it as plague proportions.

Cluster flies, named because of their ability to communicate with each other using a scent to summon themselves into clusters, were plaguing the whole district, mostly in rural areas, he said.

"I've been to Geraldine and I'm down in Waimate doing some now," he said yesterday.

The first signs of cluster flies began a month ago.

"Because they come en masse, it's hard to control them all.

"They're just everywhere. It's just unbelievable where they're getting in."

When they would disappear depended on the weather, he said.

The recent warm autumn days, where the flies fill buildings looking for a place to hibernate, meant the problem could last for some time.

"It'll be until we get the real cold snap," Mr Curry said. "If we get real bad weather, that could be it because they'll be killed off or they hibernate."

Cluster flies were first noticed in the South Canterbury area in 2001.

Overseas experience showed the flies seemed have a three-yearly cycle, Mr Curry said.

"Every year's not the same. Three or four years ago was when they were really active last time."

Last year he fielded six calls in total relating to cluster flies. This year he is getting six a day.

Although commercial spraying would help keep the problem under control, there was no silver bullet to ridding a property of cluster flies, he said.

Maungati resident Monica Wilke said she was getting used to hoovering up piles of flies.

It had not been this bad for a couple of years, she said.

"They're there and there's nothing you can do about it. It's just a matter of hoovering them up and burning them."

Southern Spiders Pest Control owner Barry Keates said he was visiting around five homes a day.

"I did seven yesterday and most of them were at Pleasant Point."

Geraldine and Woodbury were also hot spots, he said.

FLY CONTROL

Flies in the house like rooms that are shut up.

Check the guest rooms.

In warm dark dry corners, behind pictures, under mats and bedding, try a spray, and for areas that are hard to access, use a bug bomb.

Treat the grass and the house before the next season, as they come back to the same places.

Burn remains rather than throwing them out to stop smells being released.