By ALAN FERGUSON

A Clydebank mother has told of her horror after waking to find a swarm of bluebottle flies blackening out her living room window.

Our sister paper The Clydebank Post reports that Kirsty Cummings and partner Craig McLeod, both aged 28, spent hours battling off the disgusting infestation at their council house in Craigielea Road, Duntocher.

They were petrified that they would spread germs onto 10-month-old baby, Christopher, who was taken away from the top floor flat on Friday, August 21.

After being unable to rid the flat of the flies they called West Dunbartonshire Council’s environmental services line the next day — only to be told by an emergency operator that nothing could be done till after the weekend.

Anxiously waiting, keeping their child out of the house, no one appeared at the promised time on Monday. On Wednesday, an officer from the council finally arrived only to say nothing could be done.

Kirsty, a nursery nurse, said: “So many bluebottles had come through the wall by the time we had woken up in the morning — they covered the whole front window, blocking out the light, making a horrible, murmuring buzzing sound.

“We tried to clean up as many as we could, we got the baby out of the house straight away. It was a horrible and scary moment.

“I find it absolutely disgusting that knowing fine-well we had a baby in here, the 'emergency’ service could not come out to help us on the Friday. Even more so, they said they would come on the Monday. That was a lie, because no one turned up.

“They told us to use toxic aerosol cans of fly spray to tackle hundreds of bluebottles, which would then lie around our house.

“That’s not healthy, not when we have a baby here who is just learning to crawl.”

The swarm of bluebottles had become trapped within the chimney shaft at Kirsty’s home.

The large flies lay eggs where they feed, usually in decaying meat, rubbish, or faeces. In this case, a dead animal in the chimney had attracted them.

Kirsty and Craig, a full-time carer for his mother, managed to seal off the vent themselves using special tape their neighbour gave them. After some days they managed to get rid of most of the flies.

A council officer visited them on Tuesday, August 25, and told them the whole wall would likely have to come down so they could get in to clean the chimney out.

A West Dunbartonshire spokeswoman said: “We’re sorry to hear that these tenants are unhappy with the service they received. The tenants telephoned our emergency housing repairs team on Saturday.

“A report was made to our housing team on Monday who arranged to attend the property and part of a nest was removed from the chimney.

“We found no further evidence of flies but arranged with the tenant to return and inspect the property again in a week to ensure the issue is resolved.”