Fly traps are an ancient solution to the fly problem. Surprisingly not used as much today. You have a fly problem and the usual response is to grab a can of poison. The main problem with poisons are that they kill not only the bugs you want dead, they also kill the ones you might like to keep alive, not to mention the idea of yourself or loved ones coming into contact with them.
Over the thousands of years Humankind has dealt with garbage and other wastes, they have had to deal with the biological duties of Flydom. Though flies are dirty and carriers of disease, the world would be buried in crap and carcasses if it weren't for their intervention. However, they carry disease and are really dirty, so control is an issue.
Some of the earlier controls were to take a certain poisonous mushroom and float it in milk, stinky baits with a similar funnel setup, sticky traps, and the Dog. These forms are not pragmatic for whatever reason, the dog gets full, it takes days to get the stink just right, the stink is stinky, and lack of mushrooms come to mind.
This trap is pleasant enough to keep in the house and works much better, is more efficient, than any of the other methods commonly used.
Over the thousands of years Humankind has dealt with garbage and other wastes, they have had to deal with the biological duties of Flydom. Though flies are dirty and carriers of disease, the world would be buried in crap and carcasses if it weren't for their intervention. However, they carry disease and are really dirty, so control is an issue.
Some of the earlier controls were to take a certain poisonous mushroom and float it in milk, stinky baits with a similar funnel setup, sticky traps, and the Dog. These forms are not pragmatic for whatever reason, the dog gets full, it takes days to get the stink just right, the stink is stinky, and lack of mushrooms come to mind.
This trap is pleasant enough to keep in the house and works much better, is more efficient, than any of the other methods commonly used.
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Signing UpStep 1: Fly Behavior
Before we can defeat our enemy, we must understand his habits. Besides being attracted to feces, garbage, and unwashed individuals, flies are just plain too fast to catch. In that devious little brain lies all the factors that have kept him and his ancestors to the Nth degree in business. So to defeat him we must study him.
The easiest way to do this is to find a big pile of dog crap in the yard and watch it closely. This is a great activity for the family and friends over a few beers during a cookout. We usually cut out little fly wings for the kids and play games like "catch the fly" where one of them takes off making buzzing sounds and have all the other kids chase after them with nets. The dogs join in and it's just fun all around. Anyway, if you watch long enough you will start to see things like me, and realize that when flies get done with whatever they do there, they do two things:
1) They fly straight up.
2) They go towards the light.
See, when flies handle their sacred (Sacred to Flies. What did you think I meant?) functions in the great scheme of life, they seek out stinky dead things all over. If it happens to be in a tight place, they crawl around following the smell until they get to the spot they need to be. Getting back out is a little harder, because in an enclosed space they can't smell anything but stinky, so follow the light. Now you know why they always seem pretty stupid about realizing they can't get out THROUGH the window glass.
The other problem flies have is nobody seems to think of them as pets. Either somebody is trying to eat them, or just plain doesn't like them for some reason. Understandably, they have a real persecution complex, so over the millions of years they've been in existence have developed these paranoid responses which, noting their habits, have worked out pretty good for them.
Beyond the fact that his egress is not likely to be down and under that pile of poop, the most vulnerable time for our leetle friend is when he's taking off. Considering the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, getting airborne is simply a matter of getting there fast. Now catch him.
The easiest way to do this is to find a big pile of dog crap in the yard and watch it closely. This is a great activity for the family and friends over a few beers during a cookout. We usually cut out little fly wings for the kids and play games like "catch the fly" where one of them takes off making buzzing sounds and have all the other kids chase after them with nets. The dogs join in and it's just fun all around. Anyway, if you watch long enough you will start to see things like me, and realize that when flies get done with whatever they do there, they do two things:
1) They fly straight up.
2) They go towards the light.
See, when flies handle their sacred (Sacred to Flies. What did you think I meant?) functions in the great scheme of life, they seek out stinky dead things all over. If it happens to be in a tight place, they crawl around following the smell until they get to the spot they need to be. Getting back out is a little harder, because in an enclosed space they can't smell anything but stinky, so follow the light. Now you know why they always seem pretty stupid about realizing they can't get out THROUGH the window glass.
The other problem flies have is nobody seems to think of them as pets. Either somebody is trying to eat them, or just plain doesn't like them for some reason. Understandably, they have a real persecution complex, so over the millions of years they've been in existence have developed these paranoid responses which, noting their habits, have worked out pretty good for them.
Beyond the fact that his egress is not likely to be down and under that pile of poop, the most vulnerable time for our leetle friend is when he's taking off. Considering the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, getting airborne is simply a matter of getting there fast. Now catch him.
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I used to own a store bought flytrap made from a canning jar lid, a disk of screen with a small hole in lieu of the metal lid, and a small plastic cylinder with a hole that fitted thru the hole on the screen. I think the hole was drilled or molded onto a "T" shape. I put some dog stuff in it, screwed on the lid, and it worked like a charm.
When Dad was on Saipan in WW2, he told me they made industrial size fly traps there because the flies were so bad after the invasion. I thought he was joking and about a hour later we were finishing a homemade fly trap with some scrap screen and two 1x10 chunks of wood. The wood held a length of screen shaped like a arrowhead with small holes in the apex of the "shaft" end of the arrowhead. Placed over bait the flies flew through into the screen enclosure through the holes. A small length of wood sealed the two screen ends at the "point" of the arrowhead. It worked very well. It remains a great memory of father/son bonding for me.
* four long pieces of wood about 1/2" square and a foot long
* one piece of wood notched to fit and secured about 1/3 of the way up
* a fairly large hole cut in the piece of wood
* form a funnel with window screen to fit over the hole
* secure the screen funnel with staples, glue, etc.
* fray the tip of the funnel so flys can squeeze thru the fibers but not back out
* wrap window screen around the four sides
* make a "cap" of window screen
To use: stand the trap over bait out in the yard: fresh dog poop, a chunk of an ear of corn, some rotten food, etc.
As mentioned in the article, flys like to depart from their "lunch" by moving straight up. When they do they enter the funnel on a one way trip.
To empty remove the cap, dump the dead flies then replace the cap.
It's the same basic funnel trap used for thousands of years with a jar for a cage.
This 'ible is about how to make a fly trap, not how to catch flies. What kind of flies are you trying to catch? I would say if you're trying to catch carrion flies, use meat. If you're trying to catch houseflies, use the leftover spaghetti. What did I use for bait? What the flies eat!
- Fruit flies like sugar water (soda or fruit juice)
- Yellow jackets like sugary things in early summer, protein (rotten meat) in late summer.
- House flies prefer, well, any rotten food.
- I wish I could catch horse flies and deer flies, but they prefer live animals.
I colored the outside of the baby food container with a black sharpie and I used a blackberry to bait the fruit flies. I also found that a slit was too big of an opening, and the flies flew back out of it. Instead, pushing the tip of a ball-point pen through the side of the container made the opening just right. I caught HUNDREDS of flies with this thing. Great 'ible.
"[poisons] kill not only the bugs you want dead, they also kill the ones you might like to keep alive, not to mention the idea of yourself or loved ones coming into contact with them."
http://www.asseenontvguys.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=857
Good to know that someone's patented a three-thousand year old idea and claimed it all for himself.
poetry !
(I admit I bought a commercial fly trap but boy does it deliver.. Yesterday it was so full, flies were lining up outside waiting for to get in. If you think 1 fly is scary, wait till you have to remove a cup of dead flies from the device.)