When we were in Melbourne in January-March a few years back, I seem to remember having to constantly swish flies away all the time. The flies seemed to be everywhere and a lot more daring than the UK kind, in that they would repeatedly 'land' on you.

It was particularly bad at the beach and even drove us from the beach on occasion.

Is this typical of Melbourne? Was it because of the time of the year? What's the story with the flies?

- CDM

It was a particularly bad time for flies. Something to do with NSW, if my vague recollection is near the mark.

It was the time of year there are a few around in the summer months. They have never really bothered us but we find down at Philip Island, Sorrento and Wilsons Prom they can become very annoying in summer:curse:

Its when ever the wind comes from the north
Flies become airborne with a warm wind from the interior,
the same applies in Perth with a Easterly wind.
Usually only in summer

There were times earlier last summer (December-January) when you could barely leave the house without the buggers in your mouth. Not very nice and it frankly drove me nuts. HOWEVER, you do get used to it (in a weird way) and it is only for 8-10 weeks of the year.

When we went to Melbourne area in 2005, we took a trip to sorrento Jan/March and we also got off the beach due to these little gits take a stab at us, were they fruit flies? all i know is , they wouldn't get off and it felt like they were sticking pins in us little barstewards, only experienced them at the beach though..

hi all

are the flies really that bad all over melbourne / australia or just in parts some time of the year sorry very naive question but looking at mornington peninsula are they bad all over there or again is it only certain areas .

Those sound like no-see-ums, as the Americans call them. Almost invisible like bugs that cause a pin prick like sting. I've never seen them here in Oz, but we were forced off a beach in Florida once (near Tampa bay)

Around here they are just bloody flies, lots of them. Oddly I have never had a problem on the Coastal side of Sorrento, only on the bay side.

Al

They are bad for a few weeks during the summer. It's tricky walking to the beach sometimes esp if you have bags in both hands and can't swish them away. As already said last summer was particularly bad as there were more flies than usual. You do kind of get used to them. You can escape them a bit by getting in the sea or buying one of those fly nets you wear over your hat.

We tried BBQ-ing at Frankston Foreshore when the flys were around and this is the worst I've ever seen them. We needed a BBQ-er and someone to waive their arms over the food.

Again, the flies aren't around for long so don't let them put you off.

A heap of us from the another forum (a lot are on here too) had a meet in a park in Eltham last Summer. I sneaked off at one point to BBQ some steaks.. within 2 mins it was like the steak was dipped in a sticky fly sauce.

Good protein however and it didn't affect the taste much.

Flies are an Australian phenomenon not just Melbourne. They have been particularly bad this year because the dung beetles have been dying out in the drought - usually the dung beetles keep the populations down. Mind you, even though they were bad, they werent as bad as they used to be about 30 years ago when you would be covered with them as soon as you went out the door.

HI , definitley 'saw em' dark quite big..think it might be the March Fly


nasty little buggers

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...3DFbQ%26sa%3DN

We were at Wilson's Prom for the 2008 New Year and it was the first time we had ever experienced March Flies. The nasty things are very persistant and the females will actually try and get blood from you to feed their young. Apparently, they are attracted to black and blue clothing. I also understand why they are called March flies - you can't stand still otherwise they'll get you.

I hated the flies in Tassie. Walking down the street they would wait to ambush me at a ceratin part. Small and very aggressive, though they did not bite they just loved buzzing your ears and eyes and mouth. Used to drive you nuts at times.

In our experience of Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, Melbourne definitely seems to have the worst fly situation.

One particularly bad day on the beach in Melbourne I thought I'd give up on swatting them away for a while just in case I was actually engaging in a game with them, and perhaps they'd get bored if I stopped playing. The result was almost instant stubble on my face!

I think I'd seriously start contemplating getting one of those Aussie hats with dangling corks if I had to live in Melbourne. Curious to know if anyone has had experience of wearing one?