Kitchen Garden Forum

Does anyone know of an effective fly killer please? Every time I open the door, another few zoom inside and I spend the next few hours trying to swat them....I can't bear them flitting round, or the thought that the filthy things are walking all over things in my kitchen! The aerosol fly killers are about as much use as a chocolate fire guard now and so far, I have had more luck zapping the damn things with a well aimed wet cloth!

Cheers.

Does anyone know of an effective fly killer please?

Winter

Sticky yellow card, Elaine, as used in greenhouses, though the resulting graveyard isn't very attractive!

We have a bit of sport with one of those electrified bats. There seem to be masses of them this year.

Yellow sticky things for the polytunnel. We have been bothered by wasps recently. Dozy things.

Hi Monika and Catherine. Do you know, I never thought about those yellow sticky cards at all! What am I like? My brains must be addled. I shall go get them from our allotment tomorrow. I'm not really bothered what they look like, in fact, I will take great delight in viewing the fly corpses.

Geoff, I have been looking for one of those bats and of course, the shops are now full of Halloween and Christmas kelt and I haven't been able to get one.
Cheers.

Hello Elaine
You can still buy the old fashioned brown fly-papers - the sticky brown ones that you pull and unwind out of a small tube. They are very effective and very very sticky. If you don't mind a strip of dead flies hanging from the ceiling I'd say they are much better than the yellow cards.

John

Elaine, we have cats and I make sure I clear any uneaten cat food promptly after they have eaten, also have a proper compost bin with a charcoal filter in the top. I wrap any discarded edibles like soup bones well before binning and see all lids are in place I find if there is nothing to attract them fewer will come into the house.

Hi John. I had thought of those flypapers, and had a look around for those too, without success. I think the garden centres will still have them...I don't think their festive stuff has taken over yet...

Hi Nature's babe. Sadly, I no longer have my cat, so that isn't an attraction for the flies. Like you, I used to remove uneaten cat food promptly for that reason...also, the little minx wouldn't touch food unless it had been put down for her in her esteemed presence!
Left over cooked food goes into our council provided caddy, enclosed in a bag, and it has a good click shut lid. Green waste/vegetable peelings etc., are bagged up and put in another lidded bin in the garden and taken to our allotment.

I have scoured this house looking for possible fly attractions but can't find any. I'm as sure as I can be, that they are not breeding in here... I have noticed them more when I have had the door open. We haven't a compost heap or any rubbish in the gardens either. I just think they are opportunists and fly in because it's nicer indoors than out. I suppose that's why they're referred to as house flies!
I have flattened three today with my trusty wet cloth! The colder weather will see the back of them!
Cheers.

Many years ago, one of my grammar school teachers taught us how to catch house flies alive (he was a very versatile man!) and then release them outside: you wait until they settle on a flat surface, put your cupped hand BEHIND them on the surface and then sweep them up very fast from behind. With a bit of practice (and I have practised it a lot over the years!), it really works. It wouldn't be any good, though, for lots and lots of flies.

The Fly

Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

William Blake (1757-1827)

Fond of Blake, though I hadn't come accross that particular poem, thank you for sharing it Alan.

That is a lovely poem Alan....but it doesn't make me feel guilty about swatting 'em!
Cheers.

I have fun with one of these. Cheap and cheerful, and very effective. Most market stalls sell them.

I use a Rentokil Fly Killer pen on my windows in the kitchen which works really well, is invisible in use and relatively cheap. As long as you don't object to brushing up the dead bodies as they accumulate on the window sill. I get mine from my local hardware store.

http://www.pestfreehome.co.uk/rentokil- ... etails.htm

A warm conservatory is a big attraction for flies so, in there, we have retractable insect meshes fitted to the windows and doors which certainly helps keep the numbers down.

Diane