Flies Flies Flies

Rain, and an increase in the no of cattle because of low wool prices for years
Cheers Pete

We will have to whip those Dung Beatles into gear, it appears they are sleeping on the job LOL.

Cheers

D

Warm weather and rain.

WA must be a good place.......... 5000trillion flies can't be wrong...hahaha

Flies will die out again with the first cold snal around May.

Contrary to belief most flies are bush flies and were here long before cattle immigrated from other climes.

Cheers

The dung beetles should kick in when the weather gets hot. Been like winter the last couple of days which will make them go very quiet. Added to that the humid weather makes them want to sit on your face.

Motherhen

darn Kiwis always complaining about the flys

Thought it was funny last reak to come back to Perth and see people wishing madly and complaining- No idea what a real fly plague is like. Our recent rain in the murchison has settled them a bit

Was listening to the ABC the other day and a entimologist from the CSIRO was saying that it can be directly attributable to the drought. You will note that the flies are small....indeed very small. Well she was saying that this is because the quality of the dung is low 'cause the quality of the feed is low - and the flies are pretty damn hungry. She also said that as the ground was so hard it made it difficult if not impossible for the dung beetles to breed and do a good job.......well something like that anyway. Probably get it all from the horses mouth if'n you do a search on your local ABC site.

SWMBO has the same opinionn of flies. After our last outback trip she wrote a song about the experience. We also had a couple of poms out with us which made for quite an amusing trip.

If you like you can have a listen here.....

Bloody Flies

Did see a report somewhere by a scientist saying that most of the flies that drive us mad in the bush depend on moisture and vegetation to get going - a dash of rain and a bit grass can start an explosion - animal dung doesn't have to be in the equation it seems - maybe WE are the dung, when we turn up ?

Not very indepth but read about it here

As Willem said flies were here long before sheep and cattle.

I always thought sheep country was fly country but reading journals of early explorers like Burke and Wills they complain about the flies.

Livestock may help the flies but they were certainly around before the livestock.

Alan

the flies are the worst I have seen them. I've never seen so many people wearing those silly fly nets. You have to breath through your teeth at the moment. I have lost count of how may flies I've ingested so far. Apparently the dung beatles are a little slow this year. I don't know why but this is what I heard a local farmer saying. Flies breed/feed on the cow pats that the dung beatles usually break down.

Leroy