The pair have become used to the sound of flies “getting zapped throughout the night”, Davies says. But Davies is reluctant to give up on the house that is her “pride and joy”, she says. “It makes you feel like you’ve got a really dirty house,” he says. It is all the more important to think positively about flies given that insects as a whole, including flies, are largely in decline. Davies and her neighbours think their fly problem is connected to a local recycling plant run by the company Tandom.