© 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.
