So difficult to keep on top of them, they seem everywhere in this hot weather. It's vital to keep food covered. But there comes a moment when the salad has to come out of the fridge, along with the mayo, and it is good to have plenty of water on hand. I've tried to be creative about "lids" and I think I've found some workable solutions.
It was ridiculously satisfying to discover that the silicone lid I use on bowls in the microwave is
exactly the right size for my salad bowl. And my small
MOOPOP fits the little bowl I use for serving mayonnaise.
I picked up the little glass jug from a CS year ago. It had lost its original stopper, but this inverted champagne cork does the job. [I don't drink champagne, no idea where the cork came from] Until the other week, I had a cute IKEA water carafe with a silicon lid. Then it slipped and broke! I retrieved the carafe which Bob had kept since his student days. The IKEA lid didn't fit.
I recently picked up a yellowstickered bag of three limes. I sliced and open-froze them. Instant ice-and-a-slice.
One of the ancient names for the devil was
Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. I was amused recently to read the suggestion that those irritating insects which keep you awake at night. Buzzing round the bedroom, should be called
beelzebugs!Have you any good suggestions for creating no-fly zones?
We have been inundated with flies here in the middle of France for weeks. Living in the middle of a field has a lot to do with it!
ReplyDeleteI have been burning citronella tealights in the kitchen, also using a Nancy Birtwhistle trick of studding lemon halves with cloves and standing them on the worktop, supported in egg cups. That works up to a point.
Your field location cannot help. Interested that you've had some success with the NB trick
DeleteMy kitchen filled up with those irritating little black flies after they discovered fruit cores and peelings in my compost caddy. It took the whole caddy outside the back door and the flies followed it out. Hooray!
ReplyDeleteSuccess 🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟
DeleteWe are plagued by ants at the moment. I have worked to get rid of them but they are really annoying and keep coming. There's not thousands but they are steady. Flies - no idea how to vanquish them!
ReplyDeleteI think it is Ant Breeding Season 🐜🐜🐜
DeleteHaving tried everything - bar a magic spell - to discourage ants, I went for the nuclear option: one of those plastic disc thingies. Works a treat.
DeleteA recent Nancy Birtwhistle post suggested lemon, sliced in half, stick some cloves in and sit it in an egg cup. I've not tried it but worth giving it a go. Gail
ReplyDelete🍋🍋🍋 see the first comment from Jean , above
DeleteWhen I was growing up, we used to have net or mesh domed food covers to keep flies away from the food. And at night, we all slept under mosquito netting (but, sometimes, the mosquitoes would still manage to get inside the netting!)
ReplyDeleteI have some of those mesh umbrellas too
DeleteNo good suggestions, I'm afraid - but I played Beelzebub in The Mysteries in Milton Keynes, way back in the late 80s early 90s. I was a "minor demon" pushing Satan on a municipal street cleaner, and was dressed in a punky/ high viz vest way. Happy days!! Love FD xx
ReplyDelete👷♀️🧹👿...I'd should have loved to have seen that production
DeleteAngela I am a lazy one, make up salad on a plate and stick them back in the fridge. I have 2 dome shaped covers which fit over large plates.
ReplyDeleteThe domed covers are useful for big plates
DeleteThat's why I don't like bifold doors which everyone seems to want, because in come millions of flies. We seem quite fly free at the moment and I have lots of those net like domes that can be placed over food which I bought in Sainsbury's home department when there was a sale. I have some lovely dangly curtain type things made from crochet material that has something metallic in them which weighs them down and they hook over open doors and do a good job keeping flies out. I bought them at a local craft fair a couple of years ago not seen any since. Nancy Birtwistle recommends halved lemons studded with whole cloves placed around on work surfaces which work as fly repellents, I haven't tried that so don't know if it works but her suggestions are normally very good and green. I do find flies very annoying. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteLike Jane, and Gail, you're clearly another Nancy Fan!! My new next door neighbour has just installed orange and yellow plastic strips at her kitchen door as an anti-fly-curtain. I haven't seen any like that for some while. I wonder if they work...
DeleteI feel like I'm constantly telling my family, "shut the door because you're letting the flies in!" We don't have so much of a problem with them here but when I lived in the country near cows then they were everywhere! And no, could never figure out how to be totally fly-free.
ReplyDeleteIt is the choice between a cool draught to bring down the heat versus a warm room the flies cannot enter. 🥵 or 🦟🦟🦟?
DeleteWe also have screens on our windows so that keeps most of the critters out.
DeleteHi Angela, the flies and mosquitoes are a problem when eating outside in summer here in southern Australia but we have fly screens on all our windows and doors so we can let the sea breezes in. 11 degC, overcast and drizzly rain today. JennyP
ReplyDeleteWe don't really go in for fly screens in the UK ☀️
DeleteEven occasional flies are so irritating, and unhygienic, I like the silicone covers, great idea. I've taken to putting uncovered plates of food in the cold oven, to avoid using so much cling film, just have to remember it's in there!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
I sometimes use the microwave for that reason.
DeleteWe haven’t found any way of discouraging them. If they get bad enough we have to hang up a fly paper strip in the kitchen - it’s ugly but it works. We read somewhere recently the question “ Why is it that a fly can get into your house through a 5 millimetre crack but couldn’t find its way out if you took off the whole side of your house?” The fly buzzes around the patio door trying to get out but the second you open the door it flies frantically in the opposite direction! Occasionally I have been successful with the Dyson with the crevice tool on the end but it is rare. Electronic bug zappers are useless.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have many flies, but lots of spiders, although Miss Sheva gobbles them up when she finds them. I use a folded teatowel over salad plates and mayonnaise gets served straight from the bottle in this house. Xx
ReplyDelete🕷️🕷️🕷️😀👍
DeleteI grew up in England and we had to deal with flies. Here in Canada we have screens on the windows and patio doors all summer as we have more than house flies to cope with. Of course the odd fly does get in occasionally, and has to be removed, but we can leave food out indoors. On the deck, it's another matter. If food goes out, we go out with it to make sure it stays "unflied". (I made that word up, much to the annoyance of autocorrect!)
ReplyDelete"Unflied" is an interesting word!
Delete