One of the things the garden has taught me is that houseflies are pollinators, too. Yes, they do walk around on animal droppings. Yes, they lay their eggs on dead things. Yes, they tend to congregate around trash bins. And, yes, they also pollinate flowers that we humans either cannot smell at all, and some that we wish we could not smell at all.
Another thing I have learned is that chestnut trees have very smelly (not in a good way) blossoms. I have a large chestnut tree in the back garden. It has just started to flower. It’s bloom will last about ten days. For ten days it attracts houseflies along with bees. Those houseflies bring their friends and family to the feast. Some of those friends find their way into my house. This is an issue for me.
I do not care about flies that stay outside. Flies inside? No. Not welcome here. I find myself taking to them like Gandalf spoke to the Balrog deep in the Mines of Moria. I have walked around my living room, dining room, and kitchen proclaiming that houseflies “shall not pass” through the screens or around the doors. My husband and I have brought the swatters back out and we wield them like swords, we are searching for the electric traps we bought last summer, and have put sticky paper up on the windows they seem drawn to.
I have scrubbed the kitchen, poured boiling water down the sink drain, emptied the trash, recycling, and compost bins and kept them that way. I hurry Luna’s plate from the floor after she eats. Her dog door is inaccessible to her right now, and she must wait for us to open the solid door to let her in and out. I keep the dishwasher running or clean. Still, they come in. Today, I will purchase some peppermint essential oil, mix it with water, and spray it around the doors and windows.
As long as the chestnut tree is flowering the scent of it rises and disperses in the hot air, and the insects come. Of all the insects it calls, only the houseflies seem to want to add a tour of my house to their after-dinner entertainment. After ten days the flowers wilt (pollinated or not) and the flies go elsewhere (thank goodness!) Until then, I try to hold them away from my house. It is a battle. I become a warrior defending my own. I warn them, I usher out any smart enough to heed my words, and then I squish any that don’t. I don’t take any joy in this; but, honestly, I do find satisfaction in it. I have studied, taught, and still practice non-violence. I guess I still have some way to go with that: especially with ticks trying to suck the blood from anyone I love, and houseflies or ants trying to be squatters in my house.
If I knew then what I know now, I would not have planted the little chestnut sapling so near my house. I would have thought twice about planting it at all. Not only are the flowers stinky, but the nut hulls are spiky, indeed. I need leather gloves to gather them from the lawn each autumn. All this said, and my warrior spirit awoken, the tree is a living being who is part of my life. She is a neighbor. She shades the gardens from the worst of the summer sun; provides pollen for bees; an insect buffet for hungry, nesting birds; and many chestnuts for the neighborhood’s small mammals. The tree, like all we humans, is a living being and a big part of the ecosystem here in my gardens. Her life intersects with mine, and how I feel about the flies and the prickly-shells on my lawn are about me and my human concerns. The tree is tree. The human is human. We must find ways to live together because living together is how nature works. Now … where did I put that fly swatter?
Courage my dears. Live and let live within reason. Love one another.
