The West Don't Know Like the East Do Know

Noel Christian | 14/11/2009 - 22:25

The Weather is nice. The winds are light. There are flies everywhere.

I am recovering more slowly than I would like from the procedure with the big needle. Walking is still a struggle in the latter part of the day but things are getting better. Now the weather is settling too and I can start recording again. But I will be working in daylight, and in NSW daylight means flies.

The flies are worse on the eastern-side than they are in the west. So much worse that traveling from Perth to the Tablelands is like going back in time. Entomologically speaking

The flies come in waves. Every so often, a new variety arrives. A couple of years ago it was a middle-sized, rugged type with a bright yellow head. Last year, they were blue. This year, no specific strain has turned up, although we are getting a lot of very small, fragile individuals that may prove to be the plague for the year. Understandably, these variations become major topics of conversation, second only to the weather and the price of fuel. These different varieties come from the surrounding deserts, arriving courtesy of the prevailing winds. The wisest or our locals even know which desert they come from – or so they claim.

The west don’t know flies like the east do know - but all that concerns me is how many will go down my throat - and what will they do when they’re there?

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Have you ever been in Perth

Author: jeffhansen
Date: 16/11/2009 - 10:20

Have you ever been in Perth in November, when the flies are out in force, and before the dung beetles have begun to do their job?

www.meltheco.org.au

Flies in November

Author: Noel Christian
Date: 16/11/2009 - 17:42

Jeff

Yes, I have - for many Novembers.

But, in WA we did not kill all our dung beetles. In NSW they did. The reasoning was: flies, dung beetles, they're all bugs - spray the lot!

Noel

Here in the west, we had no

Author: jeffhansen
Date: 16/11/2009 - 19:29

Here in the west, we had no dung beetles to begin with. They were introduced by the CSIRO over many years, in a bit to reduce the fly problem. Whilst this funding program has now ceased, and no new beetles are being released, they seem to be managing a reasonable population by themselves, in the city at least. The only problem is the time gap between the flies starting to breed in spring, and the dung beetles becoming active in early summer, when the warmer weather activates them.
This is why the flies can be thick in early summer, but then decrease in numbers.

Hang on, this is a theatre site, the only flies we are usually concerned with have large weights attached to them.
www.meltheco.org.au

In the West My True Home Is...

Author: Noel Christian
Date: 16/11/2009 - 22:14

Jeff

I am a fifth generation WAlian, only temporarily entered into the darkness of the eastern seaboard.

I remember leaving Perth for Denmark in the early '80s (I am a country boy; this was a return, not a flight), and this was at about the time the dung beetles began to have an impact. The difference between the south coast in the '70s, and then in the '80s was extraordinary and all the result of the CSIRO and its beetles. No mattter how bad the flies became thereafter, they never again reached those earlier levels.

My first encounter-shock with the eastern states was not to do with the lability of the time zones, but with the (to me) sudden abundance of flies. As a general rule, they are worse in regional NSW than elsewhere. Every now and then I hear local farmers suggest that it was a bad idea to kill off the dung beetles. They are now re-introducing them, but the necessary campaign to restrict the insecticides that killed them off originally is only marginally in place.

Like you, I was once only concerned with the flies that had weights hanging from them. The only thing that got up your nose in those days were critics.

Best

Noel

The West Don't Know Like the East Do Know

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