The List

The following day I sat in the same place at the same time of day with the same book and was not visited by the fly. This led me to hypothesise that one way to rid yourself of an annoying fly is to stare it out. Obviously is difficult to catch the eye of a fly and the method is only suitable for use out of doors. Nonetheless let us add it to the list.

WAYS TO GET RID OF FLIES.

Part 1. Ways to get rid of flies which are bothering you inside your house.

a) Use fly spray ( this rarely works nowadays).

b) Wait until the fly sits on a glass sliding door, open the door very slowly while encouraging the fly towards the open air. When it flies out, close the door very quickly. ( Or it will fly back in. )

c) Open any window in the room you and the fly are in. Wait until the fly lands on the flyscreen. Close the window, trapping the fly between the window and the flyscreen. Open the window a little, very carefully, and undo the plastic latches at the base of the flyscreen. Close the window. Go outside. Remove the fly screen and release the fly. Make sure it's gone. Replace the flyscreen. Congratulations, you've done it. ( This won't work on a very hot day. The fly will not be attracted to the outside air and won't go anywhere near the window.)


Part 2. Ways to get rid of flies that are bothering you in the Temple.

a) Sacrifice an ox. ( Pliny the Elder recommends this. Apparently there were no flies in the Temple of Hercules Victor.)


Part 3. Ways to get rid of flies that are bothering you out of doors.

a) Wave your arms about ( a bit tiresome ).

b) Grow thyme ( a long term solution, from Pliny).

c) Stare it out ( a fly does not like to see, with its compound eye, millions of versions of you looking at it. This is just a promising hypothesis, in the testing stage).