My experience of flies is that during the past 20 years or so there has been a significant decline in numbers – Highland midges not included of course (‘It makes you feel you’ve got a really dirty house’: what’s behind the UK’s plagues of flies?, 30 July).
Memories of childhood summers in the 1950s and 60s are of endless sticky flytraps, typically placed near doorways in the house. Any foodstuffs left out on a counter would immediately attract a variety of coloured flies within seconds.
