Swarm of flies is bugging residents in Limerick estate
MYSTERY surrounds a swarm of flies that descended upon city suburbs.
Noel Hannan, from Glasgow Park, contacted the Leader on Wednesday to say, “It was like something out of the bible with the plague of locusts”.
“There were hundreds of flies. I couldn’t open my windows. I got lavender spray as they’re not supposed to like lavender. I put down Domestos and Dettol too. It was an infestation,” said Noel.
Leanne Higgins, a neighbour, said she was like a “ninja” going out her back to hang out clothes whilst trying to keep the sliding door open for a split second.
“I got the sticky fly paper and I was changing that every day. I got an electric fly killer that they use in chippers,” said Leanne.
Antoinette Slattery, who lives a few doors down from Noel, said they had their dinner upstairs due to all the flies.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I came home one day and my husband had killed 200 of them,” said Antoinette.
Another neighbour – former councillor Lily Wallace – said she was “plagued with flies”.
“I’m living here 43 years and we’ve never had this problem before. It’s disgusting,” said Cllr Wallace.
They all asked the same question – “Where are they coming from?”.
The Leader then learned that residents in Janesboro, Rathbane, Lynwood, Norwood, Woodlawn, Southhill and surrounding areas were also affected.
Then on Friday, Noel contacted the Leader to say barring a few stragglers the flies had disappeared.
“An act of nature caused the problem of the flies. An act of God with the storm and the rain on Thursday killed the problem,” said Noel.
Deputy Willie O’Dea said the council have conducted an investigation into possible sources of the problem but everything has come back clear.
“They have to move on and show a bit of initiative to find the source. Time is ticking. The good weather is coming back again,” said Deputy O’Dea.
Cllr Catherine Slattery said she will be staying in touch with the residents and council.
In a Facebook post, Cllr Sarah Kiely said she “Will continue to work on this until we get a resolution”.