I hate fly traps due to the killing of flies and other insects what are your thoughts?
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I forgot to mention I’m trying to convince my mom not to use them.
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Could you please clarify which ones do you have in mind, there’re numerous kinds used in different situations, having a kitchen full of flies that were born from dead carcasses and fed/laid eggs on them is not something one would like to have, the only way to get rid of flies if there’re many of them is to use traps.
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Sticky tape outside and bag traps outside there are also sticky tape traps inside.
Do you have a farm or something so those traps are used outside? I’m not familiar with big properties, so I can’t comment on how people deal with things when they have a lot of fruit trees for example, but you can say that using local species who would eat flies will be more efficient, e.g. making bird houses or attracting insects with flowers.
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We have sundews and butterworts (Drosera & Pinguicula) in the kitchen window to control flies. And I’m disappointed that this thread wasn’t about Dionaea. :(
Sticky traps are fine for enclosed areas and around places where you’re spending time or working. Most outside locations catch many non-target species so I don’t like to see them hanging off by themselves. They’re better than bug zappers though.
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Having worked in a wild animal shelter for quite some time I detest those sticky fly traps. We had more than one case of bats gotten trapped by that (yes, inside of flats where bats flew in the open window).
just as an example
https://thefurbearers.com/blog/fly-trap-catches-terrorizes-and-injures-several-small-bats/
I would suggest insect shields in front of windows and doors to keep the flies outside…
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I think “close up and clean out” can be effective. Window and door screens doors are a good line of defense.
Are there a lot of animals in the vicinity? Keeping the nearby yard clean of animal waste may help (not sure that’s possible if you live near a forest or farm).
Since I’ve always lived in urban to suburban areas, flies have not usually been a big problem. Yet, I had a plague of flies once when I moved into a property that had housed ~a lot~ of dogs. The flies always flew to the western windows in the evening as the sun was setting, so I used a vacuum cleaner to quickly remove them and emptied the dust container outside right away. I temporarily closed all the vents into the house that I could, including covering the floor heater vents (it was summer). We cleaned the yards of any noticeable dog waste and tried hosing down porches and patios really well. In a month or two, the flies died out and did not come back (whew!).
Curiously, I saw people at Oregon restaurant hanging several baggies of clear water at doorways to deter flies in rooms where the doors needed to be open to the outside. The thinking was, that the weird light refractions would unsettle flies and keep them from entering. I’ve always wondered if it worked.*
@Ajott that’s so sad about the bats! They were attracted to the flies and got caught in traps. Oooph…
*Okay, so I looked it up:
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/water-bags-repel-flies.htm
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I don’t like those sticky tape fly traps because they don’t care who gets stuck. Seen quite a number of geckos basically get trapped and starve to death/severely injure themselves trying to get the seemingly free meals (aka stuck insects). The only upside I see from this is that it makes it very easy to make observations.
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unless you are collecting the specimens for a survey or identification/donating to a museum or collection, I think sticky traps are a bad idea. they’re inhumane and as others have said anything that lands on them is toast. there are better methods for getting rid of flies in your home. if you are trying to reduce flies outdoors… don’t.
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Thank you all for the suggestions/feedback I might finally be able to convince my mom not to use sticky traps. Also, we have a farm so we have thousands of flies.
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http://pza.sanbi.org/coleus-neochilus
This is supposed to deter flies, if you lay cuttings on windowsills. Haven’t tried it.
Perhaps you would have a local herbal plant to use?
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Amanita shrooms can be used too!
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that’s a really big fly
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Ikr, lol!
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Actually flies are good in some instances but flies are bad in terms of breeding,breeding increases the number and forms locusts. For this problem we can use natural fly catchers such as Wabler’s.
Ways in which flies are useful https://blog.csiro.au/five-reasons-flies-are-awesome/
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That’s correct but u gotta dispose that after a sometime because the tape will start stinking due to the accumulation of the flies
I dont think that tape is biodegradable.
That is soooooo Huge
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