A Sticky Ending

Wednesday 6th October 2010

Cluster Flies

In the autumn, cluster flies are attracted to warm, sunny surfaces from which they crawl into crevices so that they can hibernate through the winter.  Unfortunately, thousands of them can accumulate in loft spaces where they cluster together throughout the winter.  If they are disturbed by lights, they begin to fly around, bumping into surfaces and even suspending themselves by a thread from the ceilings.

But, a word of warning.  A Lerryn resident told us of an incident with cluster flies.  Fed up with a loft-full of cluster flies, he decided to put up some sticky fly papers to catch them.  Unfortunately, he caught more than he had bargained for, as can be seen by the pictures below:

                                  

Distressed to find that he had caught a long-eared bat and it was stuck fast to the fly paper, he was relieved to know that the Pelyn vets were prepared to help.  After a quick car journey to the surgery, the vet was rewarded by a painful bite from the bat.  Eventually, the long-eared bat was freed from the fly paper and put in a box for its return to the loft.  Apparently, the membrane (wing) of the bat has remarkable powers of healing.  We are pleased to report that the bat made a full recovery and was probably relieved to find that all sticky fly papers had been removed from its home.