Flies - Progress!

 Previous posts have made mention of the serious problem of tiny flies in the roof room - millions of them, mainly dead, accumulating on the roof room floor.

Question is - how are they getting in?  I think we now have a definite answer - via the flat roof overhangs.  I have spent a good deal of time this winter locating the few internal ways-in.  Mainly these have been constructional gaps around the angle where the glazed walls meet the internal ceiling.  Also around the sunken ceiling spotlights and where the wood burning stove flue goes through the ceiling.  It has been great fun locating those areas with a flickering candle flame on windy days, then sealing any gaps up.  The recessed ceiling lights have been replaced by surface mounted LED panels, carefully sealed where the wires necessarily come through.  By far the biggest gap was around the flue - sealed with fireproof sealant.

In theory that should suffice but in all conscience to flies! I want to stop them getting into the roof space in the first place.  The space is shallow and necessarily ventilated via deliberately placed vents under the overhangs.   These have probably been the likeliest way in.

Today has been springlike so I removed one of the aluminium panels underneath the north west corner overhang.  It was quite a revelation!

By chance, you can see the now sealed gap around the flue of the wood stove on the ceiling inside the window,

Quite a few clues there eh?  As it happens there is no vent in that panel.  It is not meant to form an airtight seal either so the little devils could have entered via the panel edge gaps or through the vents in adjacent panels.  Thinking caps on for the solution which allows ventilation but denies access to these tiny flies.  Mosquito net material will be researched methinks.