House Flies - tips and tricks?

[Albert]

Does anybody have any rock solid house fly measures to share?

I hate the little buggers!

 

[Albert]

Nobody? Not even a "your house is obviously filthy, burn it with fire" suggestion?

 

[Preitler]

Taking off my glasses helps to not see all of them

Apart from fly strips (use vegetable oil to get them out of your hair) and window screens, toxic window stickers or milk with fly anamita - all the usual stuff, no, sorry, no magic bullet. I don't use any toxins anyway.
Those UV-traps mostly kill other stuff, and the glass jar traps I used around the barn for one season stink to high heaven and only work for other flies that go for meat anyway.

You would have to burn the barn too.

In just a few days daylight will get shorter again, we're heading for winter, so the problem is just temporary

"Paitiently sit and wait at the river until your enemy floats by"

 

[MnCanary]

Apart from fly strips (use vegetable oil to get them out of your hair) and window screens, toxic window stickers or milk with fly anamita - all the usual stuff, no, sorry, no magic bullet.

I agree with Preitler. If you are OK with insecticides, permethrins or pyrethroids make a big difference. I don't know of any complete fly control system. But all the methods help reduce flies. Using a lot of partial measures together will be effective. Also, keep the manure and urine cleaned up, or cover frequently with dry bedding. PDZ sprinkled on wet spots helps reduce the ammonia. Flies in my area don't seem to find the wet spots when I use PDZ.

 

[MuddyFarms]

I read in a horseman/farmers magazine once about a way to trap horse flies- never tried it and don't know if it would work on house flies. Place a mirror partway in a tub of water and mix in some dish soap to the water to break the surface tension. Then place it wherever there are the most flies and they will fly into the mirror, drop down into the water, and then drown since there is no surface tension to keep them floating. I might try it this summer by my barn and in the house.

Also, if flies are a problem in a barn, you can use barn lime to help in the wet spots under cages.

 

[Forrest Cerda]

Does anybody have any rock solid house fly measures to share?

I hate the little buggers!

I just purchased reusable flyfixed traps just a few days ago. I can't say from personal experience that they work, but I'll be able to tell you in a few weeks how it goes. YouTube videos of them looked promising.

 

[user8584]

Does anybody have any rock solid house fly measures to share?

I hate the little buggers!

We keep the rabbit house clean as possible seems to help, and we moved the waste away from the door.

 

[Albert]

Thank you all. Just to clarify our rabbits are 30 yards away from our house and there are no flies around them at all.

The flies are in our house!

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

You can catch a LOT of flies in a homemade trap. Just cut a 1 liter (or maybe in your case a 2 liter) plastic bottle in half about 1/3 down from the top. Invert the top and stick it down into the lower part. Put meat (shrimp shells work great) in some water and put it inside. Set it outside and it will fill with flies. I think it ATTRACTS them though, so I quit doing it.

The flies crawl in through the bottle neck, but can't figure out how to get back out.



I tried using one inside, with less odiferous contents, but I wasn't able to find anything that attracted the flies in my house. It did work, but only randomly. If you could figure something out that didn't stink, it would work indoors. I tried sour milk, wine and a couple other things, but no joy. Although wine attracted the fruit flies.

Also, I have one of these (Made in USA), and they seem to catch flies, but the sticky pads were expensive, so I quit using it. Now we just swat.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

@Albert I just remembered you're in France. Well, they make knockoffs of those light traps in China so you should still be able to find one, if you're interested LOL. There is one that has a fan & light and sticky trap. I just haven't found that flies are really attracted to light. At night, they seem to be, but I don't want to wait until dark to get rid of them. LOL

 

[Preitler]

Flys are less attracked to UV light than many other insects that do no harm. Mosquitoes care even less about light.
The bottle trap with meat (i used a somewhat different design) works, but not so much for house flies but flies specialised on meat, that's a thing to consider useful because those are flys that can potentially cause some sorts of fly strike under some circumstances (not the same as bot flys). As I said, those traps stink to high heaven. Emptying it was the most disgusting, vomit provoking thing I ever did in my life (even beats stepping into a halfway decomposed deer in thick vegetation), any sane person would just double bag the trap and trash it.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

Flys are less attracked to UV light than many other insects that do no harm. Mosquitoes care even less about light.
The bottle trap with meat (i used a somewhat different design) works, but not so much for house flies but flies specialised on meat, that's a thing to consider useful because those are flys that can potentially cause some sorts of fly strike under some circumstances (not the same as bot flys). As I said, those traps stink to high heaven. Emptying it was the most disgusting, vomit provoking thing I ever did in my life (even beats stepping into a halfway decomposed deer in thick vegetation), any sane person would just double bag the trap and trash it.

I agree with the UV light comment, BUT we are talking about insects INSIDE YOUR HOME -- where I find no insects to be beneficial LOL

Speaking of mosquitoes, I have found a trap that actually works!



It lets off carbon dioxide without using any extra chemicals or packs. It uses a titanium dioxide coating and it sucks them into a fan. It really works. I have one in my henhouse and it fills up with mosquitoes. My hens no longer have bite marks on their combs I've got one in my house too.

 

[Preitler]

Well, I catch every night moth, ?crane fly? (the things that look like giant mosquitoes), wasps, hornets, etc. and carry them outside. Also spiders, despit a mild phobia.

House flies (Musca Domestica) aren't my biggest issue, annoying and making a mess, yes, but it's those very similiar looking Stomoxys Calcitrans, "Biting Housefly" that really gets on my nerves.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

I don't carry mosquitoes outside

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

Houseflies have goat/rabbit/chicken poop, not to mention dead things on their feet, and are known disease spreaders. (unless that is misinformation??) Either way, I don't like poopy feet walking around on my food & food surfaces.

I let spiders live in my house as long as they don't get in my bed. Too many nighttime spider bites!

 

[basoco196456]

Does anybody have any rock solid house fly measures to share?

I hate the little buggers!

I don't know but a fly swatter is handy in a pinch it seems to me if you kill a few then hang it on a belt loop they disappear . Maybe they just don't like me . Or if bugs are being a nuisance it might be your perfume or deodorant.

 

[Albert]

I don't know but a fly swatter is handy in a pinch it seems to me if you kill a few then hang it on a belt loop they disappear . Maybe they just don't like me . Or if bugs are being a nuisance it might be your perfume or deodorant.

I'm a man that lives in France, it's definitely not my perfume or deodorant

 

[basoco196456]

I'm a man that lives in France, it's definitely not my perfume or deodorant

Do I need to refine that ... I live in the US and I'm a man that has to use deodorant or my wife will tell me I stink.. besides that to keep flying insect off your rabbits try garlic out of the garden might help put garlic under in the poo pan.

 

[Albert]

Do I need to refine that ... I live in the US and I'm a man that has to use deodorant or my wife will tell me I stink.. besides that to keep flying insect off your rabbits try garlic out of the garden might help put garlic under in the poo pan.

A Frenchman who wears deodorant isn't a Frenchman and a Frenchman that doesn't grow garlic is unheard of!

I once told my neighbours we have bucks fizz on Christmas morning. He did not know what it is. When I told him it's champagne and fresh orange juice, his reply was simple.. "give me your papers and get out of France!"

 

[basoco196456]

A Frenchman who wears deodorant isn't a Frenchman and a Frenchman that doesn't grow garlic is unheard of!

I once told my neighbours we have bucks fizz on Christmas morning. He did not know what it is. When I told him it's champagne and fresh orange juice, his reply was simple.. "give me your papers and get out of France!"

Your a funny guy no orange juice? What about milk? Does a body good