Every summer our house gets invaded by flies. I hate flies. They really are disgusting little creatures really. Landing from object to object of whatever their liking, meaning they can literally be crawling over some dog mess outside to crawling over your kitchen surfaces a few minutes later. The whole thought really yucks me out really so i have a zero tolerance with any flies that enter the house let along their annoying noise as they buzz round a room! At the start of the summer i brought a cannister of this raid fly and wasp killer. I can remember exactly how much it was when i brought it but looking on the tescos online store it is currently selling for £3.49. The cannister is 300ml in size, and is blue with 'Raid' written across in big yellow letters. It claims to knock down all flying insects, not just flies, and kill them within seconds. The instructions claim that it can be used on flies, wasps, mosquitos, hornets, knats, and yellow jackets. I'm overly sure what on earth a yellow jacket is, but its presumably something you'd rather not share your home with! Anyway, its fairly versatile product really with getting rid of a lot of the unwanted visitors of the household.

I have only really used this product this summer to kill flies really. Thankfully we have not had any wasps or hornets and the like enter our house this summer. The instructions are written on the back of the cannister but its not really rocket science how to use it really, although its worthwhile reading the list of precautions of where to and where not to use. It suggests that its safe to use around children, pets and kitchen surfaces, but i my sure my daughter is taken out of the room before i use it, and i don't particularly like to use it near food or food preparation surfaces, and i wouldn't use it around pets really. Obviously you just spray the flies with this. This in itself can be quite a tricky as flies generally very fast and agile. I tend to wait till they settle up against the window before creeping up on them and doing the deadly deed. When sprayed the flies will get all flustered and have difficulty with staying in the air as the spray quickly begins to kill them. Eventually they drop to the floor where they will spin round in circle and buzzing their wings. I don't particular like killing creatures really and i do somewhat feel sorry for them as they do sometimes appear to be in some kind of pain as they struggle on the floor, but they will generally die after a couple of minutes after contact. I then just get my handheld hoover out and suck up the dead bodies so i don't have to touch them by picking up the dead bodies. I obviously can't vouch how effective and how long it takes to kill other bugs but i have no reason to believe that its any less effective really.
Overall this product has been a godsend this summer. I brought the cannister back in the Spring and have used it on number of occasions throughout the summer and when i shake the cannister i can roughly gauge that there is still about half the spray left to use, which i think is very good value for the price really. What i also like about this product is that its very effective. I don't particularly like those sticky strips as they can be messy and get stuck to all sorts, and they seem to leave the flies suffering in my opinion. Obviously the flies will suffer somewhat with this spray but i feel its more humane because it acts a lot quicker. The smell? This is the problem with these types of products. The smell is really harsh and not fragrant in the slightest but then again i'm yet to come across a product of this type that does smell nice. I tend to open up the windows in the room after using this in order to ventilate the room out. I would definitely recommend this product.