Grow a Eucalyptus tree near your backdoor.Although we humans can only smell it when the foliage is crushed (think of vicks vapour rub)-insects sense of smell is much more sensitive and hate it.My garden used to be swarming with gnats etc,but since having the gum tree-nowt! Cutting branches off and sticking these in pots around house should also help (flower arrangers love gum trees!).

You can get small 2ft tall trees for around £4 at garden centres and can kept in a pot on patio near backdoor with regular pruning,but bear in mind though...

If you decide to stick it in the ground and forget about it,once established-they can grow 5ft per year-mine is 6 years old and is 10ft taller than my house!

Thankyou Steve!
This is the kind of thing I want to do! Rather than having chemicals everywhere!
I will have to nip to the garden centre sometime in the next week!!

Im not kidding about their growth habit-they are the Ferrari of the tree world!

I've got flies coming in my house too they are damn irritating!...So I know what you mean Hevvur...

We have a crop feild out the back of our house, our back yard backs right on to it...after reading here that is probably why we get them from that feild perhaps...it doesn'y have animals in it just crops but i guess they still may be attracted to it?

Let us know what you sort out Hevvur

Would keeping it in a pot be ok? A biggish one, on the patio?
Would it grow loads then?

Keeping one in a pot is fine and if you keep it below 5ft as a bushy shrub-it will keep on producing small round juvenile leaves.If allowed to mature into a full blown tree-they grow teardrop shapes ones.They need regular pruning to keep small,but well worth it!

The most commonest one you see is the variety called the 'cider gum' (eucalyptus gunni) which is fully hardy in the UK.The 'snow gum' does looks better (gleaming white trunk after few years),but isnt quite so hardy and grows bigger leaves.

Steve we got lots of eucalyptus trees here, in fact got a small woods at bottom of field of them ..........but we still get the flies

Blimey-that suprising Christine! Honestly,i moved in,the bugs bugged the hell outa me,i planted the gum tree and the bugs moved out! My sis planted one because her garden was over run with the little blighters and hers did the same!

I dont have any other suggestions Hevvur-sorry!

I will try the tree

Hevvur hun let me know if it works and i'll be gettin one too!i hate flies!!