Holy Thread Revival Batman!

I too needed to find out about this earlier in the week and stumbled across this thread. I then also came across another thread where a chap with some bug knowledge posted what appears to be a credible answer. I thought I'd share it here as this site seems to be the oracle on all other motoring matters!

"Most flies lay their eggs in water. When you wash your car, then polish and wax it, the surface (especially on dark colored cars) looks like a pool of water to the flies, which attracts them as they attempt to lay their eggs. Though dark colors will attract more flies, light colors do as well. It's the reflectivity that the flies are attracted to more than the color.

The reason that birds will always target freshly waxed cars is still a mystery to science, I'm afraid."

So although mildly annoying when there are flies around, you could argue that the more flies you have the better prepared your car is, and subsequently it is a bizarre measure of how effective your polish/waxes etc is/are!

I know when i polish cars i always get flies landing on them after, it must be a chemical in the polish. The polishes are made of powders so it may be they like the powder but who knows.

I bought a six-month-old silver Yaris from Motorpoint recently. Every time the sun comes out there's flies all over it. I guess it's something they prep it with.

The tyres seem to have been treated with a 'dressing' that I suspect is old engine oil. It's still wet after a couple of weeks, it rubs off like old engine oil and they haven't responded to my question about the stuff which makes me even more suspicious that it's old engine oil.