What methods are effective for trapping flies inside a house?
My family lives rurally and it seems that every year we get flies in our house once the weather turns warm. I'm assuming my children running in and out all day long is what lets most of them in. We can of course try to swat them but I want to know what other methods are effective for ridding a house of flies? I would prefer not to use ugly fly tape. What methods have been proven to work for this sort of problem?
Answers ( 1 )
One I have seen both in the south (bugs galore) and here in Az where, outside of any city or town. there's lots of livestock which means lots of flies, is simple, effective and weird: A Baggie- about a gallon size, maybe two quarts, according to what you have, filled with water, tied off and hung just above head height in the doorway.
Apparently, flies have great vision, and as they approach the water filled baggie, it is acting like a mirror and the fly just sees movement- things moving toward it- and steers clear. It kind of makes sense, just difficult to think of a housefly having much of a brain in the first place.
The other trick I've seen used is plastic streamers, top of doorway opening to the floor, all the way across. Any slight breeze makes them move, which, again, seems to spook the flies. Plus kids like going in and out of them.
There is one more which seems a bit... mean-spirited, but--- go to a home-improvement store or ACE Hardware and get a fly trap. This is a plastic bag (heavy duty) filled with a noxious, dead-body-with-manure-smelling substance, with a trap lid and hanger. Add water to the bag, and hang it up AWAY FROM YOUR HOUSE and doors/windows. I really mean that, because this stuff reeks of disgusting yulch.
And the flies love it. They can smell it from a long way away, and here they come, crawling all around the trap-top, eventually finding their one-way in, and down into the water where they drown. Replace the trap with a new one every month or so.
Otherwise, good luck! Flies have a place in the grand scheme of life, the universe and everything, but it isn't a place many people like.