Fall Flies Advice - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 09:01:19 pm
content: That title is not a typo.I live in a rural area and Fall is a time for invasion by houseflies and mice. Mice are handled in the usual way. Houseflies are less agile at this time and I have slapped dozens to date (2025). About 2 years ago, I discovered another method: a small wall powered vacuum cleaner. I have not tested a battery powered one. They suck up just fine, and since intake and output can be made a closed loop with the hose, they never escape. When the season is over, be sure to empty it. They do not age well.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 09:21:53 pm
content: I'll just add my remedy here for fruit files, those little buggers:DIY fruit-fly trap:Get a small plastic bottle, cut the top off near the topSquirt some dish soap in the bottle plus a little water; ~3/4" (18mm) is about rightGet a small piece of fruit--banana, melon, apple, etc.--run a piece of thick thread through it and suspend it inside the bottleStick the cut-off top inside the bottle, holding the thread in placeAs the files discover the yummy fruit they'll fly into the bottle, land on the fruit, then go down to the soapy water, where they'll sink and drown. Works as well as any commercial trap I've seen.Another piece of advice I picked up that helps:Cover your sink drain openings at night, as they go down into them to breed.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 10:10:00 pm
content: but will the fruit attract flies that were busy else were increasing the problem ?

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 10:35:32 pm
content: Quote from: themadhippy on October 13, 2025, 10:10:00 pmAll I can tell you is that it results in an overall net reduction in those annoying buggers.

author: SteveThackery
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 04:52:37 pm
content: Poor little fruit flies! At least they don't eat shit and poop it out on your food. Fruit flies are only interested in fruit.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 05:10:26 pm
content: Having my house in the towns outer areas, there are at times plenty of flies - we have some windows stickered with poisonous stickers like these, you just have to vacuum the dead flies:

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 07:03:26 am
content: Quote from: themadhippy on October 13, 2025, 10:10:00 pmYou can get electronic traps that catch these things, and they do attract flying insects from the surrounding area. The idea is that you run them over a period of time and they slowly suck all the fruit flies/mosquitos/whatever out of the area, so the surrounding area is emptied of flying pests. They're extremely effective, to the point where you can be in the bedroom in the evening with the windows open and lights on and zero bugs come in.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 01:29:03 pm
content: QuoteBut then the fly family living in a cramped ghetto across town hears about the vacant bit of property and moves in so the problem continues,all you've achieved is a higher electricity bill.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 03:24:21 pm
content: Poor insects.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 01:23:54 am
content: Quote from: themadhippy on October 15, 2025, 01:29:03 pmNope, see the rest of my post. And they use maybe 5W of power.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 01:29:30 am
content: Quote from: themadhippy on October 15, 2025, 01:29:03 pmRiiight, I've heard about that fly Underground Railroad.

author: MadTux
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 07:55:08 pm
content: This, together with some C&C Red Alert2 musichttps://vid-hot.pr0gramm.com/2025/10/16/b49bbc878b6cbc5c.mp4

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 08:21:10 pm
content: The scourge of the Fall house flies seems to be over. It lasts about a week at my location. I only dispatched about 4 today. Only 1 after Noon. I'll empty the vac cleaner tomorrow. Of course there are other methods, but a vacuum is more enjoyable than squashing them in your hand. It's kinda like playing space invaders in 1980's. When I got home from work, I loved blasting them for relaxation.Those bug zappers do work. A daughter in the DC area uses one on her porch. Surprisingly, I don't have mosquitoes where I live. A daughter in the Duluth area of MN, not only has to use them, but she sprays. I had never seen a fog of mosquitoes until I visited for a grandson's graduation in May a few years ago.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 08:41:15 pm
content: Worst mosquito infestations I've ever seen:Alaska! in the summertimeThe high country outside of YosemiteNot the places where I would have expected to see those buggers.Worse than the Midwest where I grew up.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 10:53:39 pm
content: One of the local sayings when I worked in Minnesota was that it took a brave man on a fast horse to cross Minnesota. Google attributes that to Jesse James. But I have never seen such swarms as I saw up by Duluth.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 11:34:32 pm
content: I forgot about Minnesota.People say the mosquito is the state bird there.I once had a great summer vacation near Duluth, up on the North Shore of Lake Superior at a place called Castle Danger.I thought about moving to Duluth, but what argued against that was, of course, the winters. Not sure I could stand that much cold and snow.But I really liked that town, all that Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, the railroad museum, hills and the funkiness of the town.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2025 02:56:32 am
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on October 16, 2025, 08:41:15 pmThose aren't mosquitos, they're sparrows with hypodermics.Finland is also pretty bad this way.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2025 05:19:02 pm
content: I see yer mosquitos and raise with the scottish midge,ive encountered many wee bitey buggers but nothing comes close to the midge, they treat deet as a condiment.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2025 11:30:28 pm
content: Quote from: themadhippy onYesterdayat 05:19:02 pmAh, midges. (Or as I call them, "smidges".)There are lots and lots of different types. Where I live we have mega midges, sometimes huge swarms of them.But the ones around here is only somewhat a nuisance, and not even very much of that.Our midges don't bite. Can't bite, since they have no mouth parts. After metamorphosing into adults, they live on what they've ingested as larvae, then just fly around and do whatever midges do until they die.I've seen piles of them on people's porches inches deep. And driving through certain places here coats the front of your car in a green crust.But other than that, no big deal. I wouldn't want to be around midges that bite ...

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: «Reply #19 on:Todayat 07:34:35 am »
content: Quote from: themadhippy onYesterdayat 05:19:02 pmIn Australia they just set the Huntsman spiders onto them, problem solved.