Posted: 3/26/2012 3:43:46 PM EDT
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So the scoop is the wife and I bought a place in the mountains last fall (9400 ft elevation may be relevant). The purchase was a short sale and the place needs a lot of attention. The people that owned it before appear to have had 1400 pound pets as there is horse shit literally at the front door.
I think they had a fly problem. The windows in the attached workshop/garage had so many fly specks that they were hard to see out of. I had some pipes freeze under the mobile home and after removing some skirting and blowing hot air flies were coming out of the exposed dirt. With a little warm weather, I have been vacuuming up dozens of live and dead flies from the breezeway every day. So the question is; What is the best way to combat the little bastages? I’d prefer not to spray a lot of poison around, and since the problem does not have a localized root cause (manure pile, rotting hay or other feed) it seems that the fly predators I found online are not the answer. Thanks for your help. |
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I have used traps like this. |
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Quoted:
I have used traps like this. How bad is the smell? I'd like something I can use indoors in the garage and workshop. Thanks for the reply. |
| Not sure where you are, or what you've got there, but it sounds like cluster flies. In the fall, they gather in eaves, window jambs, attics... anywhere they can get out of the direct weather, and they cluster up together and go dormant. As the weather warms up in the spring they start to reanimate but they'll be slow and dopey. They're parasitic to earthworms, and by summer lay their eggs and go larval in the ground, though some types prefer manure making them common around farms. You then don't see them again until the fall when it all starts over. They don't like camphor and other aromatics if you want to go natural, otherwise you can use sprays, etc... good luck. |
In the garage or work shop would not bother me. I have them in my Goat barn.
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This type of traps work but they also seem to draw in more flies than previously had. My problem got way worse, almost like I had dead animals laying all over and the smell is horrid. Quoted:
Quoted:
I have used traps like this. How bad is the smell? I'd like something I can use indoors in the garage and workshop. Thanks for the reply. |
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Fly Predators
http://www.spalding-labs.com/ They work. Really. |
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My thanks to everyone for their replies.
From what I read and watched on the internet, the fly predators won't work for me because the instructions say to place them within 150 feet of the maggot source (manure, rotting hay or feed etc). My problem is left over from when the previous owners kept animals (horses, goats and others). I would expect the problem would cure itself in a year, I just don't want our first summer to be unpleasant. And I thought if I got pro-active I could suppress the infestation. |
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These worked great controling the flies in and around the dumpster of my restaurant.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100083352/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=fly trap&storeId=10051 |