I’M PLAGUED BY THE FLIES
AWOMAN from Cardiff has stopped cooking and inviting people over to her house because it is plagued by flies. Julie Crichton, 51, from Pengam Green, said the infestation has become so bad it’s now affecting her entire life.
“It’s horrendous,” she said. “It’s been going on for a while now, I’d say over two months.
“I’ve got fly traps, a screen on the door and the flies still get in.
“I’ve stopped cooking. At times, you can’t even make a cup of coffee because a fly will land in it. “I’d had to throw so much food out. “It’s constant all the time. You just don’t get a break from it.
“They go in all the rooms, but mostly the kitchen.
“It doesn’t matter how much you clean the house, it doesn’t make any difference.
“I’ve bought loads of fly killer and traps and after a while, it costs a for
tune,” she said. “I’ve spent over £100 in the last year.
“I won’t invite people over to my house. It makes you feel like it’s dirty even though it isn’t. It’s embarrassing.
“In this weather, you would expect a few flies, but not this many.”
We recently reported that fly infestations in areas of Cardiff, such as Splott, Tremorfa and Pengam Green, are being linked to food containers on the Celsa steelwork site.
It’s thought that food left in unwashed tins sent to the plant for recycling is attracting the pests onto the site before the tins are recycled.
Dr Gareth Richards, industry and waste regulation specialist from Natural Resources Wales, said: “We regulate businesses to make sure they operate without harming people and the environment.
“We’ve worked with Cardiff council to trace the source of the fly problem in the Tremorfa area of Cardiff to the nearby Celsa steelworks, which we regulate.
“The issue is related to scrap tins stored on site with residual food contamination.
“Celsa is implementing a number of measures to reduce and ultimately avoid the impact this issue is having on the local community.”
A spokesman for Celsa Steel UK said: “We apologise to the local community for this situation and are working as quickly as we can to resolve it.
“We reprocess over 100,000 tonnes of scrap steel every month, some of which comes from tin cans.
“Some recent deliveries of cans have contained excessive residual food waste, so we have alerted the supplier and are reprocessing the remaining cans as quickly as possible.”