Houseflies in Switzerland, summer 2022

I followed the "Grand Train Tour" in mid-June 2022, so I stayed 2 nights each at 7 locations in Switzerland. Something memorably negative was the houseflies at a few locations.

- Restaurant "Chalet de Gruyères" at Gruyeres Castle. There were at 3 to 6 flies visible at any one time, constantly landing on our food.

- Restaurant Pizzeria Grund at Grindlewald Grund. There were EVEN MORE flies here landing on people and food. I killed at least

- Hotel breakfast of Eiger Lodge (Chic / Easy). Not as bad, but still the imagine wanting to pour fresh milk from a glass jug for cereal, but there is a fly standing on the crook of the spout.

- Trubsee lake playground (between Engelberg & Titlis), these were smaller than house flies, but more numerous. Saw a family try to barbecue food and I think they had to abort because of the flies.

Are flies entirely to be expected every summer? Or is this year unusually bad?

Hi blankie,

Thanks for your post.

I'm sorry you encountered so many houseflies during your recent trip. They are commonly called fruit flies here and yes, these insects can become a big pest in summer. They are attracted to the warmth and sweet food so one of the ways to keep them away is to store your food in containers. Or use natural remedies to keep them at bay. The restaurants should have done more to ensure their guests were comfortable.

Despite this inconvenience I hope you still had a good trip.

Regards,

Anna

Yes, we thought the flies were pretty bad in most locations on our recent trip! It kept us from ordering pastries from open display cases in many cases, since nothing is more unappetizing than seeing flies crawling all over the croissants and breads! We were a bit surprised, thinking cooler temperatures in the mountains would not be conducive to them.

Sorry to hear that EASW. Yes, the mountains are cooler than the valleys, but in hot summers you'll have to get to significant heights to get rid of such insects. There can still be plenty of them in mountain villages such as Grindelwald and Engelberg. They're not at very high altitude for Swiss standards. Hot spells and heat waves are unfortunately getting more common in Switzerland, and those may cause favorable circumstances for flies (but I'm not an expert).

I've had varying experiences in the past, one summer being "worse" in that regard than others. I seldomly encountered (house)flies in the Upper Engadine: one of my favorite regions due to its high location and cooler climate. Could that be an attractive destination for you?

If you have the chance to visit in earlier or later months (April-May or September-October), it should be less problematic too: https://www.myswissalps.com/besttimetovisit.

I have to agree - there were lots of flies during this trip especially in the Bernese Oberland.

We were in Grachen not far from Zermatt and didn’t have this issue over the nine days we were there

OP here. So, in mid-June, I also did not have fly problems at Zermatt, St Moritz, Lugano (even though it was very warm), Luzern, Zurich. No problems picnicking supermarket food outdoors, and no flies in restaurants.

In future, perhaps the Switzerland system there will be fly forecasts in addition to snow, UV index etc.

One of our funniest memories in Switzerland was at the Hotel Alpenrose in Wengen. We had left on window cracked open during the night to let the fresh mountain air come in. Around 5 in the morning there was one pesky fly that kept landing on us while we were trying to sleep. I finally had the idea that he might not be able to find his way out (the same way he came in), so I got up and opened the door to the balcony wide open. In hindsight, that might have been an invitation for more flies to come in, but it actually worked! We had no more flies in the room that morning, lol.

Thanks to all for your input! The degree of housefly nuisance obviously varies per region, time of the year and seasonal circumstances. I've definitely noticed many flies in the Bernese Oberland too, more than in various other regions. The circumstances there are favorable to them, I guess.

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You are on the countryside on some places, which includes insects.