How I kill massive amounts of flies without chemicals, etc...

[Mavrik]

After being invaded by 300-400 flies in the coop and it doesn't seem like any sprays last or work, not to mention the chickens being subjected to chemicals. I found that even "safe" permethrins have ill effects on the chickens. I designed and installed a huge fly zapper. I basically took a store bought bug zapper and wired it up to hardware cloth that covers a window. I found a window with direct sun rays (instead of the UV zapper bulb) coming in attracts the most flies to the zapper. Why a window? All flies will want to leave eventually and are attracted to direct sun. In five minutes it kills about 15 flies and that is roughly 180 flies an hour or 1500 flies a day. The chickens have a nice steady flow of fly treats.

One thing I found is I'm using a zapper that it runs at about 2000 volts on the killing grid. The EMF (Electromagnetic field) actually repels some of the flies. Using a lower grid voltage will increase the kill rate. (like 5 flies a minute isn't enough LOL)

I found that a zapper UV bulb does nothing to attract flies during the day, however at dusk flies go crazy for this bulb. I counted 34 flies zapped in five minutes. About 15 minutes after sunset, the flies go into sleep mode. Not really worth it to run the zapper all night. I have found next to no flies first thing in the morning.

When choosing a bug zapper find one that has a "Single killing grid", like this unit at Home Depot. I assume most would be using a lower grid voltage for these as well.

 

[OldGuy43]

Very innovative. I like it!

 

[Kassaundra]

Clever, do you have pics?

 

[ll]

Clever, do you have pics?

yes, pictures please? Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mavrik]

Sorry, no pics, the install is not "UL approved".

Using an off the shelf unit will work to get rid of flies at dusk. Maybe hang a bug zapper in the sun rays in a window. Just make sure it's a single kill grid and florescent UV tube.

 

[clogan98]

So are you saying that the Stinger unit you mentioned would help? Or did you say you altered it somehow. I'm interested. I was going to order some of those fly larvae wasp creatures, but would like options!

 

[Georgia116]

Pleased to help! Having excellent results with a fly trap ( disposable) made by rescue! With all the hot, humid and rainy days, we had a massive amount of flies.....now we don't!! Nothing else was working! Got it at walmart.

 

[Mavrik]

Using a good design zapper and location is actually important. I was killing about 1000 flies a day, I ran out of flies I'm using a 7 year old Stinger brand that uses a transformer for the killing grid. I would have to buy and take apart the one I linked to see if they are still doing that or if they switched to capacitors, there are draw backs to capacitors, one is they don't last. But the one I linked does have a single kill grid and florescent lamp.

So the key points are;
Single kill grid
Kill grid at about 800 volts (high EMF chases some away)
Transformer kill grid (a "stuck" bug will keep capacitor zappers inoperable)
Florescent lamp (for dusk killing)
Hang in sun rays (for daytime killing)

You asked will it help, sure, but nothing like my mega zapper. The flies do go crazy for the florescent UV tube at dusk. I'm not running my zapper anymore because I only have a dozen flies now. But I turn it on at dusk to eliminate the few I have.

The nice thing about zappers you never have to buy more and change it like disposable trap methods just use it year after year.

 

[RaeRae2]

Brilliant idea!!
Here is what I did when literally thousands of flies invaded my chicken house......

Literally, it was like Hitchcock meets Stephen King sort of scary...............

We waited until dark when the flies went into sleep mode, and were literally lining the walls and ceiling in thick, black blankets. We sucked them up in the ShopVac!! It took maybe 15 minutes to rid the chicken house of 95% of the flies! To make sure they were dead, we directly sprayed a fly killing spray into the nozzle of the vaccuum so it sucked up the poison.

Opened up the ShopVac, there was a 1" thick layer of dead flies in the bottom. The next day I sucked up the reamining ones that I could. We hung up a lot of fly strips from the ceiling too to catch the renegades that avoided the ShopVac. I also put in two of the stinky bait traps. I used poultry dust (permethrin powder) and sprinkled everything - walls, roosts, floors, flat surfaces.

PERFECT solution for us!! It is now about 3 days past the "invasion" and there are just your standard handful of flies buzzing around.

When I went in last week and couldn't walk through the house without getting flies in my eyes and mouth and nose, I was practically in tears. I had been using fly strips and it was NOT working. Sure, I was catching 6 fly strips totally full every day, but it was just not enough. I have NEVER in my life seen flies like this. And my chicken house is CLEAN. The floor is pine shavings, and I scrape it all clean and put new shavings down every few days.

 

[clogan98]

I was going to order the fly predators at Spalding Laboratories but it's just creepy to me