Flies, Flies, Everywhere

We had a BBQ yesterday that went pretty well. For some reason Daddy monkey's coworkers don't feel the need to RSVP to our gatherings so we never know if we're going to have 2 or 20 so we always have leftover food. This time I think we have about a dozen burgers left and a few chicken breasts. I completely forgot to make the sweet potato fries so our abundant supply of them is my fault. We bought a new fire pit that has a table top option so that gave us an extra surface for guests which we really needed. The weather cooperated and it wasn't overbearingly hot. However, the flies around here have gotten worse.

Every year around this time, we have to leave our fly swatter out because the flies are everywhere! As a friend put it, each time the door opens and closes, we gain about 5 flies in the house. They're a horrible nuisance and unfortunately there's no great solution to reducing their presence. I've tried hanging clear bags of water (I don't think that worked at all) and we have a bug zapper. I consider it a success if I don't let the flies live long enough to make it upstairs. Of course for the BBQ, they decided to join the party. We've also have a bad wasp problem this year (in the whole neighborhood, not just our house), but we only had a couple of them appear yesterday. The flies are driving me crazy though. I wish they had a fly version of the mosquito repeller's that supposedly work for about an acre of land.

We have family visiting next week so I can't wait to put the fire pit to use and hopefully that will repel the flies a little. We're trying to enjoy the new deck as much as possible and I love spending time out there. Monkey girl asks to eat outside a lot and unfortunately we've had to say no more than we'd like to because of those pesky flies. I wonder if putting candles on the table would help. We'll have to experiment a bit more I guess and see if anything helps. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Thanks!