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Started By
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Flies-Do bug zappers work?
Posted on 5/2/21 at 7:11 am
Posted on 5/2/21 at 7:11 am
We dine outside a lot and flies are a problem. I have a small lot/lush garden in an old historic neighborhood (big trees, lots of places for them to hide). I’ve tried the bags that collect flies and smell horrible. I can’t put these far away and feel like I was attracting more flies than I had.
Will bug zappers help? I really hate the idea of zapping any insect that is attracted to the device. One focus of my garden is to provide food sources for pollinators.
Will bug zappers help? I really hate the idea of zapping any insect that is attracted to the device. One focus of my garden is to provide food sources for pollinators.
This post was edited on 5/2/21 at 7:23 am
4
Posted on 5/2/21 at 8:01 am to tigeroarz1
I use a bug zapper and still have flies around. I clean the area where the zapper is located and there are moths, flies, etc. I’ve never seen a honey bee though.
Posted on 5/2/21 at 8:09 am to CoachChappy
Thankfully honey bees aren’t attracted to bug zappers. I have a bug zapper but never use it anymore. I mainly wanted it for mosquitoes. But you have to bait them with an octenol lure for that, and that becomes a hassle after a while.
You could always try the old fashion yellow fly paper. Tacky, but they work.
Also, there’s some fly trap glue you could purchase and paint it onto white or yellow buckets.
Youtube
You could always try the old fashion yellow fly paper. Tacky, but they work.
Also, there’s some fly trap glue you could purchase and paint it onto white or yellow buckets.
Youtube
Posted on 5/2/21 at 10:45 am to tigeroarz1
quote:
Believe it or not, these bags are an insect repellent.
It's not entirely certain why the bags work, the Tennessee Farm Bureau speculates it's because the pennies appear magnified in the water, which irritates the flies, who have large, sensitive eyes. "The fly bases his movement by light and the refracted light coming through the water in the plastic bag confuses the fly causing him to move on to a place that is easier on the eyes," the TFB website states. What else can be done? To make your own fly repellent, simply get a gallon-sized zip-loc bag, fill it half to 3/4 with clean water, and drop 3 or 4 pennies in the bottom of the bag. Once the bag is firmly sealed, it can be hung from or nailed to an eave near a doorway to keep the nasty critters from entering your home. In addition, they can be hung over picnic tables or other outdoor seating to keep flies away from your patio.
I first saw these in a Guatamalan restaurant in Austin about 15 years ago. The owner says they are used in Guatamala all the time. Works for flies, not for skeeters.
Posted on 5/2/21 at 12:08 pm to tigeroarz1
Quikstrike
This stuff will do a number on them in a matter of weeks. I put about a tablespoon in a bowl with about an ounce or two of beer, kind of a slurry. Make sure it's somewhere that pets/kids can not get to or will not mess with. When I use it, I talk to the kids about it and how dangerous it can be. But the stuff works.
The first few days I had it out, I had maybe a half dozen dead in the bowl and I wasn't impressed. But after about 2 wks, I probably had about 100 dead flies in and around the bowl.
This stuff will do a number on them in a matter of weeks. I put about a tablespoon in a bowl with about an ounce or two of beer, kind of a slurry. Make sure it's somewhere that pets/kids can not get to or will not mess with. When I use it, I talk to the kids about it and how dangerous it can be. But the stuff works.
The first few days I had it out, I had maybe a half dozen dead in the bowl and I wasn't impressed. But after about 2 wks, I probably had about 100 dead flies in and around the bowl.
Posted on 5/2/21 at 12:57 pm to PillageUrVillage
quote:This looks promising. I literally almost barfed every time I had to maintain the bug bags (which are liquid based and fill up quick with rotting flies!). Also possums or raccoons get into the bags. I had one ripped from a tree branch one night.
Also, there’s some fly trap glue you could purchase and paint it onto white or yellow buckets.
This post was edited on 5/2/21 at 12:58 pm
Posted on 5/3/21 at 7:53 am to texn
quote:Thanks. I’ll try this as it’s the simplest and cheapest solution.
Believe it or not, these bags are an insect repellent.
I will say I’ve seen these before and most notably at a restaurant where we had to move inside because the flies got too bad. But why not.
Posted on 5/3/21 at 11:44 am to tigeroarz1
LINK
quote:
Bug zappers seem logical: bugs fly toward light, so why not hang up a light that kills the bugs and enjoy a bug-free evening? Unfortunately, the bugs you’re targeting aren’t actually on board with your plan. The ones that get zapped are almost all harmless; the ones that want to suck your blood are going to do so anyway.
quote:
Mosquitoes and other biting insects find us by scent and by the carbon dioxide that we breathe out. They don’t care very much about light. Meanwhile, horseflies and other insects that bite during the day aren’t going to see a light hanging off your porch as anything special.
Instead, Wild says, bug zappers mostly capture night-flying insects that use moonlight to navigate. These include moths, midges, beetles, and the types of wasps that prey on other insects. In other words, they kill beneficial insects. Many of these are pollinators or help with insect control in your garden, or they provide food for bats and birds.
Many of those insects may look like mosquitoes, but it turns out there are a lot of little harmless insects that look like mosquitoes. Entomologists once ran an experiment by setting up a bug zapper in a Delaware suburb and counting up the bodies over the course of the summer. Of 13,789 little bug corpses, only 31 were of female (biting) mosquitoes or biting gnats.
“That satisfying ‘pop’ of an insect [in the zapper] is hardly ever going to be a biting insect that bothers people,” Wild says. “It’s much more likely to have been some random fungus gnat just on its way from one mushroom to the next.”
This post was edited on 5/3/21 at 11:48 am
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