great homemade fly catcher - pics

[rdranch]

It works by the attraction of food and other flies to breed with. Some will fly back out but most will stay in and die. If you leave it out long enough they will breed and soon it will be full of maggots. It is one of the most disgusting things you will ever smell but they do work very well. Woodstream makes a version of the same thing that uses pheromones to attract the flies. Gross but very effective!

 

[BirdBrain]

In some publication I saw an article on making a fly trap. It sort of worked on the same principle but used a 5 gallon bucket suspended in the air and baited with road kill or something equally
disgusting. There were holes drilled across the bottom and top. The flies would come in and lay their eggs. Maggots would hatch and fall to the ground where the chickens would feast. Eeeeewwww!!!

 

[opihiman911]

From what I understand, flies can't fly straight up, they have to fly at an angle, thus making it almost impossible for them to fly out of the holes. I have seet some walk in and out of the hole, but never fly.

I'm not sure what kills them, I would assume it would be dehydration & heat, maybe exhaustion, or maybe injury from banging around on the inside. Either way they are dead. RD is right about maggots if you leave them too long. That normally happens after I've emptied them 2 or 3 times and finally got the problem under control. I refill the bottle and then forget about it for a couple weeks, only to find it writhing with maggots. That is when I normally just toss them.

Something just hit me.....I appoligize for posting this in the dead of winter when most of you don't even have any flies to worry about. Wintertime here is lots and lots of rain, resulting in rehydrating all the dead frogs, rats and birds that died and dried up over the summer. Flies, mosquitoes, mice, centipedes and all kinds of creepy crawlies are at their worse during the winter here....just the opposite of what happens on the mainland.

Cory

 

[JennsPeeps]

Last summer I made fly traps with vinegar, water, and sugar. I caught lots of flies and when I accidently knocked over the catcher one day, the girls were delighted by the pickled flies.

Me:

Them:

 

[chicken_angler]

I got this really cool gun for christmas. It is from Bass Pro Shops. It is spring loaded. It shoots flies. It only cost about $4. I wanted it so badly so my mom told my grandma. They bought it secretly for me. I was like how did you know i wanted that. We have a lot of flies around here.

 

[cowman910]

Quote:
haha i got three! they work so good and are just plain fun! LOl
mike

 

[jaybme]

Glad to find this post. Last year I bought some of those glass fly catchers to hang, and the pheromone bait worked ok, enough that the fly problem was a lot better.

I haven't been able to find more of that bait, and finally got fed up today. I scooped up fresh chicken poo and put it in the catcher with water, and hung it up.

After a while I checked it and nothing- darn!

Then the sun warmed it up this afternoon- and holy cow, it must have an inch of flies in there!

Hey- free and easy bait for those fly traps! Yippee!

 

[JennsPeeps]

You may catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar, but you'll catch twice as many with crap.

 

[pixie74943]

I'm guessing that the chickens go mad for the dead flies?? or is it only the maggots.

I've been dreading summer with the chickens, and if I can catch AND feed them flies, we'll both be very happy

 

[xke4]

Not only is the fly trap a great idea, I think your use of the roll of wire to hold it is ingenious!