tower block residents unable to open their windows due to swarm of flies

A huge swarm of flies has infested a residential tower block in Sheffield.

Residents at the Robertshaw building in Netherthorpe have been overwhelmed with thousands of bugs in the last two weeks.

Cluster flies are travelling from the nearby Peak District to lay eggs and hibernate in the high rise building before rising again in the spring.

Footage captured hundreds of the insects buzzing around windows and within flats.

Peter MacLoughlin,81,said the situation had become ‘unbearable’.

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.He explained: ‘You cannot open your windows at all or they will get inside,and with no fresh air you end up living in a stuffy flat where any mistake means flies getting into your home and into your food.‘I cannot use fly spray because of a medical conditions I have with my chest.‘We left a window open by mistake last night and had to spend two hours squashing them with a damp cloth.‘It cannot carry on like this.’Peter MacLoughlin said that the situation had become ‘unbearable’ at the Robertshaw building in Sheffield (Picture: SWNS)He added that the infestations had been going on since 1990,when gaps in the newly installed aluminium cladding provided the perfect place for the flies to burrow.The council this week commissioned a second survey on the building,while warning of the risk to wildlife posed by common methods of exterminating flies.A spokesperson for the local authority said: ‘Other actions have been suggested to tenants,which have been rejected.‘Another environmental survey has been commissioned for this week which will at possible ways to clear the flies without harming other wildlife.’A video grab of flies swarming around the tower block (Picture: SWNS)However Mr MacLoughlin said he had been pressing the council to act for the last five years.He said: ‘The council has the audacity to complain about private sector landlords but are deaf to issues when it’s their own properties.The number of times I’ve complained about it only to be told it’s the job of another department,or told they can’t because of budget,or just passed from pillar to post.‘I’m sorry but I’ve had enough of it.’