A GRAN has told how she hasn’t had a hot meal in SEVEN WEEKS after a horror fly infestation took over her flat.
Joy McClenaghan, from Birmingham, says that her kitchen is riddled with “hundreds of flies” after a sewer pipe broke in her kitchen on March 5.
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But over two months later Sandwell Council still have not fixed the problem in her two-bed home, and the 64-year-old says because of this her life has become a “misery”.
She told BlackCountryLive: “They are just none stop. I am already depressed, I have got conditions and I am disabled.
“I haven’t had a cooked meal in seven weeks. These fruit flies carry loads of bacteria and everything – so it needs cleaning in there. I am not going to use my kitchen. They are from the sewer. It is already affecting my health and I need hot food.”
Ms McClenaghan has laid fly traps and used spray to kill off the infestation in Burnett House on Lovett Avenue – but nothing has yet solved the problem.
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She explained: “These flies live for 24 hours, but within those 24 hours, they lay eggs, so it continues on and on.
“I can go in there today and vacuum them up and, in about an hour’s time, they will be there again. A week or so ago, they were everywhere. You couldn’t even see my window sill.”
Even professional fumigators have been unable to rid her home of the pests.
She said: “Three guys came out from the Sandwell Council, they all went into the kitchen and they said ‘you have got to open your window and get some fly traps’. They cleaned them all up, threw them down the sink and left.
“I went in there, I did the fly spray, but they were still in there an hour later. Fumigators came out, a few weeks ago, and fumigated while I went to my daughters.
“Me and my son came back, I went straight into the kitchen and I saw them on the walls.”
The flies have made the kitchen unusuable for Mrs McClenaghan – who now must keep the door shut all the time so they don’t spread to other rooms.
She said: “I had to buy a new microwave and toaster. I threw my toaster away and, as you know, microwaves have got grooves in them, and these little tiny things get everywhere, so I am throwing the microwave out as I had to buy a new one, so I can have soup and stuff.
“My kids are bringing food for me. I phoned up social services yesterday, I asked them for help, and they are going to phone me in a couple of days to see if I have can have a meal on wheels.”
Mrs McClenaghan blames the infestation on the local authority “taking three days to fix the sewage pipe”.
She said: “They came through the sewer pipe when it was broke. By the time they came out and fixed it, which was three solid days and nights, I had water flooding in my kitchen, that is how they got in, in the first place.
“If that pipe had been fixed ASAP, I wouldn’t have had them.”
Sandwell Council has said it has arranged a follow-up visit on Friday, May 6.
Their spokesperson said: “Sandwell Council officers have attended the property on several occasions. They have repaired the sewer pipe. They have checked all pipework in the kitchen and found no leaks.
“The kitchen and units have been deep-cleaned and a follow-up visit has been arranged to clean out the trap under the sink.”
