The town that has been filled with flies and cannot go to work

The town of Hostalric, in La Selva, has been suffering for a week from a fly plague that fills the municipality and is complicating the lives of its residents. Some businesses in the municipality have been forced to close for a few days because it is impossible for them to go to work: shops, bars, and restaurants cannot operate, and those who can open do so with the inconvenience of having dozens of these insects around.

Traps to catch the flies are everywhere: on traffic signs, in the streets, inside kitchens, in warehouses... There are more than a hundred, according to the City Council to the ACN. But the animals continue to fly everywhere. Where do they come from? The mayor of Hostalric, Nil Papiol, explains that they began to investigate where this plague could be coming from: "We checked that it wasn't the treatment plant or if it came from fields that had been fertilized," he explains.

Finally, they discovered that the outbreak came from a company dedicated to the recycling of plastic containers in the town's industrial estate. From that moment on, an emergency committee was convened, formed by technicians from the City Council, the Department of the Interior of the Generalitat, and the company itself. The company had infected pallets and, as the days passed and with the help of the heat, the insects began to reproduce until they spread throughout Hostalric. The council has already opened an administrative file.

Discontent among residents

The neighbours assure that they are "tired" of seeing so many flies. Lídia explains it, who says they cannot "open the door or the window" without a single fly entering the house. And this plague happens during a period of high temperatures, which further complicates the situation. Some neighbours explain to the ACN that they have opted to make traps themselves with bottles on the railings of the playgrounds to capture insects, others simply close the blinds and hang sticky strips on the windows so that they get stuck there. However, flies continue to be seen flying in masses.

Joana has a photography studio in Hostalric. She assures that all day she has the door closed and the air conditioning on. "Luckily, it's hard for them to stay in here, but when someone opens the door they come in droves," she explains. In fact, she assures that she is still lucky that she can be with the door closed and work equally, a different situation from that of the bars and restaurants in the town.

Companies in half gas

Some businesses have opted to lower their shutters until the plague passes. Some operate with their kitchens closed, and others are tired of going around with fly swatters and insecticide everywhere. And this also leads many customers to decide not to go to the terraces to avoid the nuisance.

In the industrial estate, the situation is similar. There are companies that operate at half capacity and others that don't even open. One of those that has not stopped working is Selvametall. The manager, Carles Sánchez, explained that last Monday they arrived at the factory and found it was full of flies. "We've tried everything: traps, insecticide, we've fumigated..., but they always come back," he explains.

The manager assures that it affects the workers "emotionally" because the situation is very annoying. "Here we work with the door open, it's hot, we sweat and the flies stick to us," explains the company's representative. In fact, employees don't stop swatting these insects with their hands, with head nods, and with all the techniques they can. Meanwhile, the traps remain full of trapped insects and have to be changed very often. "I've spent 300 euros on insecticide and traps, but at least we can keep working," admits Sánchez.