Cluster Flies

I wrote recently about having 2 days off a week and how I think every Pastor should have this luxury. I look forward to my days off so much and this week my family had very little planned on those 2 days. This is very rare. Normally we are booked like crazy but this was suppose to be a very relaxing weekend. When I came home Thursday night Jessica told me that she had killed 34 flies in our basement and then told me to go down stairs and look around. I saw around 50 flies attached to our back door inside our house. That's right, inside and not outside. So the hunter in me came out. I started swatting, banging, and dancing on as many as I could find. They were everywhere and I couldn't find the source. I eventually killed all of the ones on the glass doors and decided that we needed to go get some fly spray. So we left the house and got a fly trap and some fly spray. I got the can that said no poison spray. I do have an infant. When we came back we had about 20 flying around and I killed those but still couldn't find the source.

Note, this is not near our kitchen and they are not coming from the laundry room.

I finally think I have killed them all and went to bed on Thursday. I woke up Friday and went down stairs and we had another 30 flying around. I got out the spray and went to town. I didn't have time to kill them all because I was headed to a Bible Study. After Bible study I called as many pest control companies that I could find to see if any of them could come out and solve my problem. Believe me when I say it was a problem. In fact we thought it was getting bad enough that we took our boys to my parents' house. I talked to 2 companies that couldn't come out but told me that they were coming in through my chimney and I need to start a fire. It was 90 degrees yesterday, our power went out, and I was starting a fire. I got some strange looks from the neighbors when they saw me go out for fire wood multiple times. The fire seemed to just make them mad. I kept calling and did get a hold of one company that could come out around 3:30 in the afternoon. I thought that wouldn't be too bad and then we could move on with our lives without having to vacuum up flies every hour. The guy shows up and says that what I have in my house are cluster flies. He also goes on to say that it is too late in the season to see these flies, he has never seen them come through the chimney, and they are not normally in houses but are found in barns. The whopper to all of this is that he left saying that he couldn't help me because I had a fire going and the stuff that he would spray would catch my house on fire among other reasons but that was my favorite excuse he gave me for not doing anything. The good news was he didn't charge me anything and told me where to go to get something that could solve my problem. He told me to go to Tractor Supply.

So I went and spent 45 minutes trying to find something that solve my problem and came across an employee who knew what cluster flies were. He also knew the exact product that I needed. It wasn't on the shelf in the store but could on be found "in the back". He brings out a can that stands 18 inches tall and with great big words on it that says "Fly Bomb". I go home, change clothes, and prepare the house to be bombed. I then successfully bomb my house and leave. We spent the night last night with my parents. We woke up this morning and let the house air out. We get home this afternoon and start cleaning up the mess. In total I have killed and vacuumed over 250 cluster flies.

The great news is this: It is now around 5:00pm eastern time and I don't have anymore flies in my house.

The bad news is this: I need a day off.