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How to catch houseflies?

The weather has finally warmed up here and now there plenty of super annoying houseflies. They’re way to fast to swat and have an annoying habit of landing on you.

I’ve tried Google’s suggestion of water/vinegar and a bit of dish soap in a bottle, but they don’t seem to go for it at all.

I’m up for trying anything, please make suggestions!

Edit: Thank you to all for your suggestions. So far I’ve tried the idea of spraying them with surface cleaner which appears to work well

DecentM ,
@DecentM@lemmy.ml avatar

Glass cups work unfailingly for me. As far as I know they don’t see very well, so once, I tried slowly lowering one over them, and have been doing it since. Nothing else needed, just wait for it to land near you on a hard and even surface. They so far have not noticed it until the cup was fully down. After catching one, I slide a thin paper/something under the cup, and take the whole thing outside to release it.

bebopnbones ,

Yeah this is my method as well. Glass cup, very slowly descending from directly above them and they don’t seem to detect it.

CanadaPlus ,

Hmm. I’ll have to try going slow. To date I’ve gone fast just because I figured they’d notice at some point.

CanadaPlus ,

Junk mail finds a rare purpose in those moments, especially for big bugs where the thickness is desirable rather than an annoyance.

SkavarSharraddas ,

Move your lightly cupped, relaxed hand behind the fly. Then suddenly accelerate and grab the fly that got startled into flying into your hand by the movement.

sbv ,

Vacuum cleaner with a wand or a powerful portable vac. You just get the nozzle near the fly and they get sucked in.

Waveform ,

A clear plastic cup and a paper card large enough to cover the opening… Wait for the fly to land on a window, and approach slowly with the cup while distracting them with your other hand. When close, cover the fly by pressing the cup on the window and slip the card underneath the opening. It helps if the fly has tired itself out first. Works well for all manner of bugs.

dddontshoot ,

I’ve discovered that I’m good at herding flies.

I start by turning off lights sources including the TV, and closing all the doors and curtains except for one open window which is now the brightest, and therefore most attractive destination for the fly.

Then I just stand so that the fly is between me and the window. I wave my arms out sideways, kind of like semaphore, and it discourages the fly from flying towards my body and my hands, and can only avoid me by flying in the direction of the window.

It doesn’t work at night since turning the lights off means I can’t see the fly, and with the light on, it just flies to the light, lol.

They also don’t like wind, so if there is a breeze outside, I make a stronger breeze inside by swinging a towel like a helicopter blade, and it makes the entire room very undesirable for the fly.

When I was a kid I would just wait until the fly was bouncing itself against the window, and just catch it in my hand, then throw it out and open window.

It also helps if you keep your house free of stale or rotting food smells.

This skill has dramatically reduced the number of flies I’ve killed by swatting.

herrcaptain ,

I love this, but also found it hilarious - especially the towel as a helicopter blade trick and your description of it being “very undesirable for the fly.” I’m picturing your partner or housemate sighing and being like, “there they go again, herding flies.” I can definitely see it working though.

lukecooperatus ,
@lukecooperatus@lemmy.ml avatar

Thank you for providing a non lethal alternative method. I’m uncomfortable with how much death humans gleefully visit upon the insect kingdom when they don’t have to.

kurikai ,

I use an electric fly swat and I fed the ones I kill to the ants

CanadaPlus , (edited )

Yeah. They clearly have little lives and experiences, however different from ours. What few experiments there are seem to indicate that at least some don’t experience pain, which is great news, but even that’s not completely conclusive just due to being under-researched, and due to it being a ridiculously diverse subphylum.

Geek_King ,

I came to this to post the same method with turning off lights so they go toward my patio door, then I just crack the door and shoo them out. Glad to see someone else using this very fast method, generally it only takes a few minutes for the fly to decide it doesn’t want to be in the dark.

CanadaPlus ,

I’ve never thought of blocking out windows. I usually just wait for them to be stuck on a particular one, and catch them there.

A transparent cup works very well because they can’t really see it coming. Then it’s just a matter of slowly working a piece of cardstock or similar under, and taking a trip outside.

mannycalavera ,
@mannycalavera@feddit.uk avatar

Get a used spray bottle, one that you can adjust the spray to be narrow or wide angled by screwing unscrewing the cap. Set it to wide angled. Fill the bottle with some water and cleaning solution. Something you wouldn’t mind being sprayed about. Surface cleaner is a good bet because you probably already have that around the house to clean with.

Creep up on a fly with this diluted concoction and let rip. It might try and fly away but the wide angled spray plus the slight stickiness of the solution will hamper it’s efforts. Watch as it falls to the floor and writhes about in agony as it desperately tries to breathe (flies breathe through their skin which is now clogged with cleaning solution). It’s wings will be useless now too as they’ll be weighed down by the solution.

Finally with some tissues mop up and squash the little shit. For the first several flies leave them where you let them die as a warning to other flies in the area. After a couple of days you can clean up the bodies.

You’re welcome 🤗.

otherbarry ,

Agreed, though I’ve found that usually dousing a fly in water (via spray bottle) is enough to surprise them & get them to drop. Once they’ve fallen it takes them a bit to dry themselves & get airborne again, that’s usually enough time to swat it and finish the job.

That works well if you just have one or a few flies - if you’ve got a ton of them fly paper is going to work much better.

mannycalavera ,
@mannycalavera@feddit.uk avatar

Oh yeah fair point. Depends how sadistic you want to get mwahahaha! 😈

But also after swatting the fly it’s nice to give the area a quick clean anyway.

Electric_Druid ,

![](lemmy.world/…/dc735abb-8b9f-4bdd-ae43-a88f6558590…

Bro is committing war crimes on these mfs

criitz ,

Fly paper strips are the way to go

original_reader ,

True. It just looks nasty.

over_clox ,

We got one of those electric fly swatters, but the thing is too heavy to swing fast enough to pop flies like you’d want. So on a hunch, I checked YouTube for a trick to make them more effective.

Basically take a styrofoam plate with a little food on it and tape it to the fly swatter, and zip tie the switch down and set it wherever the flies are at their worst. For bait, I just put a smear of ketchup and ranch dressing on a paper towel.

youtube.com/watch?v=tDZb2l2A888

We managed to kill over 30 flies in about 2 days. Heads up though, they’re not designed to be left continuously powered on, the batteries will end up dead and leaking after a couple days.

I had to toss the batteries and open up the swatter handle to clean out the battery juice off of the terminals so it won’t rot out.

But hey, aside from the inconvenience with the batteries, the trick just freaking works 👍

Death_Equity ,

It would be simple to make it corded with a wall adapter.

over_clox ,

I know right?!

But where do you find a 3 volt DC adapter these days?

Death_Equity ,

Well I have like 3 decades of wall adapters collected, so I would dig one out with the right specs lol. You can find the exact voltage and amperage one on Amazon or any number of electronics suppliers.

over_clox ,

I do have a spare box of old wall wart adapters put up in storage, I might have to check those someday.

Thankfully not yet though, those two days were enough to kill all the flies we had at the time. 👍

rumschlumpel ,

You’ll catch some flies (and various other insects) with fly paper. The good thing is that it doesn’t smell.

Never heard of houseflies going for vinegar, AFAIK that’s for fruit flies (and even that is rather tricky IME).

Death_Equity ,

It’s apple cider vinegar that works, regular vinegar doesn’t really work well.

Osage oranges also are great for fruit flies.

SpaceNoodle ,

I set by the compost bin a little glass half full of apple cider vinegar with a couple drops of dish soap, covered in cling film with numerous large holes punched through. Takes care of all of the fruit flies.

InquisitiveApathy ,

I’ve tried Google’s suggestion of water/vinegar and a bit of dish soap in a bottle, but they don’t seem to go for it at all.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought this method was only geared for fruit flies, not houseflys.

Flypaper strips can be effective depending on the severity and location of the issue and are fairly cheap. It won’t be 100% effective, but it might help. Just be very careful about where you place it if you have any pets or children.

StaySquared ,

Has to be more vinegar supposedly but ick… smells horribly.

I just go the old fashion way, newspaper whack.

tottenham28 ,

I’ve been using these for mossies for years, I know it’s not the friendliest of routes but they are not exactly friends either.

tottenham28 ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ea4525b9-8744-4c93-88fb-521952fe5dff.webp

MrFappy ,

These things are garbage.

KittenBiscuits ,

I find it useful when the fly won’t land, I can usually swat it in midair. It’s also my backup weapon when I go to spray hornets nests.

LarkinDePark ,

No. You may be using them wrong. You don’t swipe like a tennis racket. It creates a cushion of air that pushes the fly away, you need to go slower, but not too slow. Once you get the knack you’re swear by them.

Though they’re much better for mosquitos than houseflies.

bluespin ,

I have one that takes d cell batteries and works great. Have used others that barely function, though

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

Don’t know about that specific one, but my family has been using this type of “zapping racket” for decades. The ones we got are very effective and have been working that whole time.

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