Random reminder

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 29

Random reminder

WHEN TOLERANCE FLIES OUT . . .

He is a likeable man, helpful to his elderly neighbours and tolerant of most people’s foibles, (unless they prune their fruit trees wrong). Live and let live, that’s his motto, or was until the day his lady wife suggested it was his turn to vacuum the lounge. He knows better than to argue at such times, and had the machine out and was removing a week’s dust when he noticed the flies. SWOP! a fly going up the business end of a cleaner is a lovely sound. He cornered another one, and another, and another. Twenty-six flies later he was what Aunt Ethel calls In A Tizzy. (Upset). It was that Hippy Vet next door, with her pet rabbits. Where else could flies in such numbers came from? Sensible people kept a cat or a dog, not rabbits. He even suspected she ate them. Like many good natured people, when he loses his temper, he does it thoroughly. He turned off the machine with a decisive snap, and picked up the phone. His house, he told the lady on the

Council switchboard, was over-run by flies, and he wanted something done. When she had coaxed a more detailed account of the problem from him, he found himself talking to a man at Animal Welfare. Flies? the man said. Perhaps the rabbits were ill cared for. He would come at once. The council officer came, inspected the rabbits and reported back to our Hero. The rabbits, he said, didn’t appear to be the cause of the problem. They were healthy, and there were few flies near them. Flies, said the officer, could be a problem when the silver birch trees were in blossom, as they then were. Aphids feeding on the blossoms exuded a sticky substance which attracted flies ... and there were other causes. Our Hero didn’t listen to other causes. He had gone a funny colour, and was considering taking a chainsaw to the big back hedge . . . Yes, of silver birches. A certain lady Vet is still laughing.