DIY Fly Trap

The heat has set in and brought the flies out in large numbers, especially around the hen house. My friend John uses a Gordy Fly Trap (left) which is a clean pesticide free way to kill flies by trapping them. He taught me how to make a DIY version to use here which consists of a 3 litre juice bottle with a small fly sized aperture cut halfway up the bottle. You drop meat (lamb mince is the best I've found) into the bottom and then cover with an inch of water. To finish it off you cover with clear plastic and secure with a rubber band so that the flies aim to climb up to the top of the bottle rather than out the hole again. Hanging the trap in a semi sunny situation you watch as the flies first feed on the rancid meat and as more and more meet their end, on each other.

I put a bottle out two weeks ago and already there is a thick black inch of flies dead on the bottom. It sounds a gruesome activity but flies not only carry disease they can cause flystrike within a few hours which is an incredibly painful experience for any animal. I don't like using pesticides which is why I still have the bottle of flyspray I bought eight years ago. These DIY flytraps really do reduce the fly population.