LEHI, UT (KSL/CNN) – Residents of a Utah neighborhood are battling thousands of flies swarming all around and inside their homes because of a nearby farm.
It’s been a noisy summer at Brian and Cindy Olenslager’s house in Lehi, UT, with bug zappers going off constantly. There are two in the garage, another on the kitchen counter, and sometimes their son Luke swats at the flies on the porch with a handheld zapper.
Fly strips hanging inside and outside the home are covered with dead flies.
"For one thing, my son Luke sneezed up a fly. We're sleeping with flies. We're cooking with flies. This is a problem,” Cindy Olenslager said.
Neighbors are also suffering from the swarming insects. Several people have zippered door covers to cut down on the number of flies getting in, and in at least one garage, a couple of fans run constantly to push the insects away.
The Olenslagers say they knew there was a mink farm down the street when they moved in 12 years ago. The minks, which are raised for their fur, and their waste draw the flies.
"It's been an issue the whole time. Some years are better than others, but this year has been a particularly bad year,” Brian Olenslager said.
Residents have complained to the city and the county but have been told there’s not much they can do because the land where the mink farm is located is zoned “agricultural” and protected by state law.
Farm owner Dane Dixon said on the phone he’s done a number of things over the years to reduce the fly problem, though he wasn’t specific.
No one in the neighborhood really wants to move, but they say being able to sit outside would be nice.
"If somebody has some ideas on other things we could do to keep them away from our house, that would be great,” Brian Olenslager said.
For now, the neighbors are just waiting for winter when the flies will finally go away.
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