BS: Getting rid of flies

Subject: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: RangerSteve
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 09:06 AM

My two kitchen windows seem to attract an uncommonly large amount of flies. I hate to use chemicals in the kitchen, and the fly strips that I hung up yesterday aren't doing much. The kitchen is clean, with no food lying around, but the windows are covered with hundreds of flies, and only in the kitchen, not in the other rooms. Before I go out and get some bug spray, I thought I'd check here and see if there are any "folk" remedies that other 'Catters have used.

Thanks.
Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 09:09 AM

An old trick is to darken the room, and leave one small window open as a source of light, all the flies then head for the light, and leave the vicinity.
G.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: bobad
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 09:12 AM

If what you have is cluster flies, info can be found here

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 09:12 AM

I assume they are on the inside?

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Becca72
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 09:37 AM

I have had a similar problem with one of the windows in my apartment, though it was more like 20 or 30 flies. I found that the vacuum cleaner works pretty well. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 10:26 AM

If the flies are inside, call a professional pest control person and get the flies, eggs, and larvae out of your house. The filth that flies disseminate is a much greater risk to your health than a possible residue from a pesticide tested for safety and properly applied.

You can always wash all your counters with soap afterwards.
--------------
If the flies are outside, the nature of the windows may have something to do with it. Once my husband and I were camping in Idaho, and we couldn't get the flies out of our car. We opened all the doors, but the stupid flies kept buzzing and banging against the windshield, unable to sense that fresh air and food were to be had by going out the doors.

Finally I had an idea. I wondered if the windshield was polarized and if the flies were controlled by polarized light. We threw two dark jackets over the windshield, blocking the light, and the flies zipped right out the doors.

If you have some kind of modern, climate-control window, or if you have applied film to them, the light coming out the windows may be enslaving the flies.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: GUEST,mack/misophist
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 10:47 AM

If nothing else works, I once had some friends with an egg farm (Chicken shit attracts a lot of flies.) who got very good results with electric fly zappers.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:03 AM

Holy shit! Nobody told me they were electric flies!
G ☺

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:11 AM

In North Africa they paint their doors, shutters and frames blue and keep them shut. Helps most of times, but I'm not sure whether it is the painting or the closing.
Once upon a time I had a lazy dog, lying around idly on the sofa, who caught every fly passing his head near enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:25 AM

I get really good results with the vacuum cleaner and the electric fly swatter too. Electric flies? You should hear the snap, crackle and pop and see the light show when some of those suckers bite the dust!

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Peace
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:30 AM

You may feel this is overkill . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:34 AM

Well yeah......I much prefer to turn them into pocorn not cosmic dust.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Peace
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:35 AM

On second thought, filled with gravel it might be gentler than the solution in previous post.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:36 AM

The blue paint might not interest the flies. It is a fact that bright yellow shirts tend to attract various different types of flies and beetles - annoying if, like myself, you like to wear bright shirts.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: pdq
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:49 AM

Wherever you live there will be flies.

You don't really need to kill them. Just keep them out of the house.

Make sure all screens are perfect. If not, replace them.

The doors are a bigger problem since you open them when you come and go. Wave-off obvious diptera before entering.

Treat all doors with weather stripping and check for tightness at night with a flashlight or droplight.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:24 PM

When I was young, my mother did a lot of home canning. It would always be summer- so it was usually hot outdoors and indoors with the wood stove blazing away it was too. The doors would be wide open and even though the screen doors were tight closed the frequent visits outside to get more fruit or whatever meant the air sometmes was thick with the inevitable flies. It always fascinated me to see that flies could be herded: My mother would open the screen door and with a dish towel flapping she sent the flies out the door.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Peace
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:26 PM

Venus Fly Traps.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:30 PM

Just don't feed them woodbugs. It gives them indigestion.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:38 PM

My neighbor soaks fresh Basil in water, then hangs it up in a very fine netting (e.g nylon stocking). She was so convinced of its efficacy she she made me one of my own, but the results were ambiguous, at best.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Scoville
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:39 PM

Wilfried--that's cool. I had no idea. Here in the southern U.S. we paint our porch ceilings blue to keep bugs from nesting on them.

I don't know if it works, but I know that ours is white plaster and I'm always sweeping mosquito-hawk corpses out of the corners . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: GUEST,jOhn
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 04:55 AM

poison them.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 05:21 AM

Invite Kendall round to catch them, he used to be a fly fisherman!
G.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 08:52 AM

Get yourself a pet chameleon.....

Use a fine gauze fabric rather than a net for window screens... lets the air in but keeps the little bugs out. You can support it over a wide mesh metal screen if you want to make a screen door... available in many fantastic colours and shimmers, you can co-ordinate or go for plain white.

Make a fly trap with sugar water in a bottle - they can fly in but somehow not out - be careful though, it attracts wasps and bees too, so you may end up with honey bees trapped, or a bottle of wasps. If you do end up with a bottle of wasps, simply cork the end, wrap some guitar strings lengthwise along the bottle and you have a simple yet effective hurdy gurdy.

Hope you get some relief... we have a fly chasing kitten and a rolled up copy of the Radio Times... works for us!

(I used to work in a kitchen where flies were a real problem... it got so I could snap them out of the air with a damp dishcloth.... out of practice now though!)

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: RangerSteve
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 09:06 AM

Giok, thanks, it worked. I left the storm door open a little last night with the back porch light on, and this morning the flies were reduced by about 70 percent. Thanks to everyone else for their suggestions, too.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 10:43 AM

So you left your door open and Kendall snuck in and stole your flies did he?.... Hmm. I'd let Jacqui know that he's got an alternative route out of the cellar. That light.... it's not red is it???

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Keef
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 07:11 AM

A good way to keep flies out of the kitchen
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A bucket of shit in the lounge room!

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 07:18 AM

Just bought gnomeson #3, who is 25 going on 5, a fly-swatting gun. Spring loaded circular fly masher on a pistol grip handle thingy. Hours of cruel and evil fun:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 09:00 AM

Ah yes.... We tried one of those in the restaurant... it was so badly made with so many creaks and clicks that the fly had the chance to buzz off, find a turd, lay eggs and raise a family of maggots by the time the squisher on the end was deployed.


I would hope things have improved somewhat....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 10:44 AM

Not had chance to try it on a fly yet but the wasp on the bush in the back is still wondering what hit it:-)

Another way to get rid of flies is to delete them. Windows 95 used to loose them at random if I remember rightly. Of course you can get them back from the recycle bin unless you remove them with a clever shredder. Oh, hang on. FLIES? Not FILES?

:D (tG)

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Peace
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 12:27 PM

A few hundred of these will solve the fly problem . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Allan C.
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 04:58 PM

Not much help on windows, but I learned a great way to get them off the ceiling. If you are much taller than I, this first part won't be necessary: Tape a plastic cup to the end of a broom handle. Fill the cup about a third full of sudsy water. Trap the fly between the cup and the soapy water. It will invariably fly into the suds and will be unable to extract itself.

I've used this trick with consintently good results. I once lived just across the fence from a cattle barn, so you can imagine the plague of flies. The soapy water trick worked magic. When not in use, you can lean the broom handle in an out of the way corner where it can be called into use readily. Nowadays I live where I can reach the ceiling without the need for the broomstick, making the whole thing much, much easier.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 07:42 AM

Fly killer

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: open mike
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 02:12 PM

if there are that many of them they may have come from the inside of your house. best to search to find their source. good luck.

they do make jars to trap flies in. not for indoor use, they stink,
in fact one grand is called Big Stinky . With livestock nearby here,
they come in very handy.

now our next task should be "getting rid of lies"

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Ebbie
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 03:37 PM

Dang. I keep reading this as Getting Rid of Fleas.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 03:47 PM

Move to Alaska then just wait until the first couple of frosts each autumn and "Voila" no more flies until spring. Works every time.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 05:35 PM

Keep your pitches low in the strike zone. The hitter is far more like to hit a grounder than a fly.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 07:52 PM

Learn to love spiders. Or at least to welcome their presence in the home. They are lucky anyway, the same way as crickets are.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 10:20 PM

Yes, spiders are on our side, but unfortunately, one fly lasts a spider quite a while. What you really need is a fly eater with high metabolism, such as a frog or a bat. Do you suppose they can be housetrained? --- Joe Fineman [e-mail] ||: A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts. :||

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 05:13 AM

Get the silver paper from your Sunday roast, lay it out on the palm of your hand, meaty side up. Wait until the flies are attracted, land on the offering and tuck in. Then... suddenly scrunch up the silver paper and trap the fly inside. Hold it to you ear and listen very carefully... you should be able to hear the fly saying 'foiled again'.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: sian, west wales
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:15 AM

My cousins on the farm left a large jar with some jelly (jello) in the bottom and it completely filled up with flies. Absolutely disgusting. Yuk-and-double-yuk. But it worked. Screwed the cap on and binned it. (Oh, yuk again. Can't get the mental picture out of my head now.)

And, spider-connected, I was told that flies don't like cobwebs. So, I never ever ever dust. Honest. All in the interest of a fly-free house. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 08:02 AM

Get rid of flies?.....Simple! Just bin all your suits, and wear tracksuits instead.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 08:03 AM

Er...Better go and sign on in the idiot thread, I suppose.

DT

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 09:00 AM

Avoid the no pest strip at the peril of death.

By itself it may not harm you but in the presence of a normal spray insecticide like black flag - any exposed area that has touched the strip and the spray will create toxic shock. For example if tha finger touched the no pest strip and spray... the hand will swell up 4 times its normal size. If the tongue is involved or a trace is injested... the tongue will suffocate and the brain will swell and go into fatal anaphylactic shock.

This deadly combination has been used my the CIA to eliminate individuals since the toxins completely metabolize into a no dectable form. For example put the spray on the car handle and rub the no pest strip on the steering wheel - the driver will die. Especially if they eat food with their bare hands.

PS

yes I was exposed once and had both hands swell to 4 times their normal size. I was lucky I did not touch my mouth.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Kaleea
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 04:43 PM

Allan C is right about the water. While in the orient many years ago, I noticed that they used a trap which had water, but once the fly got in, it couldn't get out. There are such products nowadays that have a plastic bag you fill with water, & hang it-after it's full, it's disposable. One is the Victor Fly Magnet Bag Trap for about $6. I saw one in a local nursery (plant, not baby!).

If your flies are inside your walls, thus coming into the kitchen, that's another thing. I once lived out in the country in a nice brick house & noticed that what seemed like hundreds of flies kept somehow getting onto the inside of a particular bay window. After a couple of days of swatting with a rolled up newspaper, I finally went outside & looked around. I noticed that there was a hole in one of the bricks near the window. I watched for awhile, & saw a some flies using it. Then I went into the garage, got a can of stuff you use to spray at a wasp nest. With glove on my hand so as to not get poison on it, I shoved the nozzle into the hole & unloaded the contents into the hole. Then, I sealed the hole & caulked around the windows, inside & out. No more flies.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: pdq
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:00 PM

Bullfrogs. That's the answer.

Go down to the nearest pond and get a bunch of 'em and station one at every window. That'll work.

As John Sebastian sings:

                      "Did ya ever wake up with bullfrogs on your mind
                        Did ya ever wake up with bullfrogs on your mind
                        That's a sure sign you got bullfrong on your mind"

BUUURRRRREEEEP! RIBBITT!! RIBBITT!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: RangerSteve
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 03:04 AM

I bought some clove-based bug spray (Raid brand) and tried it. It smells nothing like cloves and the kitchen smells vaguely unpleasant now, but it sure worked. Thanks for all the tips anyway.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 04:11 AM

Hit them with a Gillian Anderson/David Duchovny video.. then they'd be ex flies.....













I'll get me fly paper.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 01:40 PM

Kilts! ( or Skirts, which suit me less...) problem solved.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 04:30 PM

Yelling at them doesn't seem to help much.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting rid of flies
From: Peace
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 07:28 PM

Get lotsa frogs.