Way too many flies, what can I do?

[gixxerific]

Like the title say's there a tons of stupid flies everywhere. They like to wait out by the doors and jump in with you so now I have tons of flies in the house.

I'm about to build a subdivision sized bug bomb.

How can I control them without poisons?

[Jewell]

Have you tried the old fashioned fly strips? They don't work when the flies are "smart", but by fall they get dumb and will trap themselves in the "sticky" of the strip. I often use them in the autumn months, because I hate having to "bomb" also.

[gixxerific]

I'm going to go out later and look, my wife went out last week and couldn't find them where she was looking.

I just noticed there are at least 200 flies as well as several other types of bugs all centered on my watermelon. Does that make sense. They are not on the other plants like this. It's like Amityville Horror on my watermelon leaves?

Oh yeah they have green body's as well as gold or copper colored body's.

[smokensqueal]

Back on the dairy farm we would use some sort of fly trap. It was filled with water and I think a little sugar (or something with a sweet smell) and the top was some contraption where the flies can get in but not out and drown. Bad part though is if you let it go to long they can start stinking. You could find something like that at a farm supply store.

[gixxerific]

Thanks Smoke I actually found something similar if not the same thing today. I put it up and with a little over an hour there was around 50 in there, no kidding.

This was a bag you cut out the top pop out "The catcher part" fill with water and hang. Works awesome. I might have to get a few more. The flies are very bad right now. Could be my garden, could be my new compost pile out in the open, could be the truckload of manure I just put down, who knows.

It just weird they were ALL over my watermelon and not so much other plants. I'm telling you there was at least 1 fly on each exposed leaf if not 5. They were all VERY busy as well, I just wondering what they are doing. My watermelon plant is doing pretty good. i just took out my cantaloupe and cucumbers due to the fact they were going down fast. Cucumber beetles were the culprit on the cukes not sure what killed the cant's

[applestar]

It's possible there were pupae in the manure. I don't know that I would do this NOW, but when we first moved into this house years ago, there were a lot of flies, and I remember I bought a package of fly parasite. They came as pupae and you scattered them in likely places like seed. They worked like a charm and the following year, there was a SUBSTANTIAL decrease in the number of flies getting into the house.

I say I don't know if I'd do this now because I don't know what the ecosystem impact would be. I would research it before doing it again, but I know they're advertised on horse stable supply websites and equestrian enthusiast magazines. Hmm -- check to make sure there are as effective for houseflies as stable flies (but then again, what you have MAY be stable flies.... Do they bite?)

[gixxerific]

Not sure Apple like I said they have glossy green body's\backs some are more golden\copper looking. I will try to find what they are now.

Thanks

Just did a tiny little search they may be blowflies. I will have to check again when it's light out.

Alright did a little more research I have heard that catnip is a good repellent for stable flies. Interesting little fact,

[nes]

I've never heard of catnip repelling stable flies, I don't really believe it would do much to be honest.

Fly strips are fantastic get them at feed stores or hardware stores. Don't both with the fancy sticky traps, just the good old fashion, stick them to the ceiling and un-curl them stick traps. Of course they all hang just above eye level in my house so there is a good amount of hair on the bottom of each one... but they work great on the flies! And once one lands the rest follow.

A little apple cider vinegar/water with a touch of dish-soap is great for catching flies. I frequently leave my dishes to soak just a little longer this time of year because that is also great at catching the little buggers.

If all else fails, fly-swatters are cheap & if not effective, will make you feel MUCH better getting a couple of the slower ones!

Also they aren't much of a match for the vacuum, it doesn't seem to kill ALL of them just stun most, but at least I can get them out of the house! (we're on the front of a cow farm, we have ALLOT of flies)

[gixxerific]

Nes same here for the most part, on the cow farm. It's just over that wood line I'm looking at right now.

Trust me I'm dang good with a fly swatter, if anyone wants to dual I'm up for that.

The trap I got works most awesome. It's actually outside and swimming with dead flies. There are countless flies in there, and that's after a 24 hour period as of about right now actually. Make that 23 1\2 hours right now.

I may have to try the cider\water\soap thing as well. But the trap I got was like $4 there was a 3 or 4 pack pull and hang sticky for about $1.50.

[!potatoes!]

not always real pleasant, but i've had good luck at times with a homemade fly-trap baited with something a little rotten...

basically just a jar with a cone of wire mesh with an open tip going into the jar. smelling a place to lay eggs/eat, they walk down the cone and enter the jar, then can't find the little exit, at the bottom of the cone.

the kind of thing you'd want to do outside though. once the masses outside have been dealt with, a good round of proving to yourself that you're a ninja of sorts with a flyswatter should clear the house. unless your ceilings are real high, i guess.

[rainbowgardener]

A vinegar and water spray is said to repel flies. Spray it on your window and door screens to help keep flies out of the house and around your deck or patio or where ever you like to hang out.

Also mint, cintronella, lavender and other strong scents. Here's a little article about making fly repellants out of essential oils:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Natural-Out ... ntial-Oils

[gixxerific]

Thanks Rainbow and Potatoes.

That link you put up was a good one RB the fie on the main page is the one we are having problems with.

To potatoes that is basically what I have, a plastic bag with a yellow cone that has some fly attractant in the bottom they get in but don't get out. The bag is about 6 inches wide and there is roughly a 1\2 inch of floating flies in there.

[Zofiava]

You can make a fly trap by cutting the top of a two liter bottle off, putting something gross in the bottom (I used dog poop and water) and inverting the top of the bottle and setting it inside the bottom half. Tape around the edges.

VOILA! lol, it worked VERY VERY well. It was gross!

[gixxerific]

You can make a fly trap by cutting the top of a two liter bottle off, putting something gross in the bottom (I used dog poop and water) and inverting the top of the bottle and setting it inside the bottom half. Tape around the edges.

VOILA! lol, it worked VERY VERY well. It was gross!

Excellent idea I will have to keep that in mind. Though they are seriously under control for now.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Just learned a trick from a Filipino friends mom; we were eating and the flies swarmed the table. She came out with two ziploc bags filled with water, plopped them on the table, and voila! the flies vanished. Mom says it's feng shui; I don't care if it's The Force, I have seen it work and how! I am assured this works every time...

My suspicion is that water draws dragonflies, so once flies see water they scoot before the dragonflies show, but I am just guessing. Try this, you will be amazed...

HG

[gixxerific]

Just learned a trick from a Filipino friends mom; we were eating and the flies swarmed the table. She came out with two ziploc bags filled with water, plopped them on the table, and voila! the flies vanished. Mom says it's feng shui; I don't care if it's The Force, I have seen it work and how! I am assured this works every time...

My suspicion is that water draws dragonflies, so once flies see water they scoot before the dragonflies show, but I am just guessing. Try this, you will be amazed...

HG

Great idea, I remember, now, hearing about this before. The story I read was from a RV'r (camping). I believe what he suggested was to hang a 'clear bottle' of water next to where you want them repelled. Again if i remember right the bottle\ziplock bag of water would confuse the vision of the flies by the reflections.

I'll see if I can find something about this, it was a several years ago.

And we have tons of dragonflies around here, the size of jumbo jets.

Did a quick search and came up with this, thanks for reminding me HG

(Quote) "Okay guys, I have the low down on this....I have family all over Mexico and travel down there quite a bit. This myth is REAL!! Lots of people in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America hang small plastic bags from doorways to repel flies. The myth says that as flies approach the entrance and they look at the bag of water their vision becomes incredibly scrambled and drives them crazy! Remember that according to science flies have several eyes or some sort of kaleidoscope like vision. Apparently the water in the bag mirrors their image many times over and drives them insane."

here is another slightly different explanation but still confirms that this works. http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/07/re ... -of-water/

[Diane]

Down south when I to restaurants I would see bottles of water on the outside tables and asked what they were for. It was to repel flies. We weren't bothered by any, so it worked. I also heard of the bag of water in the doorway to stop them from coming in.

[Pippin Limbertwig]

We have cows, goats and seven dogs. We used to feel like we were in a horror movie named "Invasion of the Flies". We release fly predators (ours come from Spaulding-Labs) every three weeks during the warm months. The cows still have some horn-and-face-flies and a few horse flies but we seldom see stable or house flies.

We also use glass wasp traps baited with sugar beside the hummingbird feeders, and with meat scraps for yellow jackets late in the season and blow flies when ever they are around. I think blow flies are the reason people used to believe in spontaneous generation - we won't see any for a year- but if there is a dead animal they show up within hours.

I keep a small glass trap on the kitchen counter baited with watery tomato juice for the fungus gnats (fruit flies).

When we had horses we added vinegar to their feed - about an ounce per day - to lessen their attractiveness to the flies.

I had forgotten the plastic bags of water - we used to hang them from the ceiling and said it calmed the flies. Hey - would a disco-ball work? CD's?

I have heard that in the southeast the reason people painted their porch ceilings yellow had something to do with flies - I assume to repel them - maybe to hide the fly specks, since yellow attracts most insects....

I had forgotten how hard we used to struggle to avoid the flies.