| DIY Organic Fly Trap |
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| DIY Projects - DIY + Recycling Projects |
| Written by Lyn (admin) |
| Sunday, 13 January 2008 03:39 |
 Make an inexpensive and efficient fly trap by recycling plastic drink bottles. This is great for domestic flys, blow flys and fruit flys.
1.5 to 2 litre (3-4 pint) plastic bottles are ideal. It can vary up or down in size. If any black bases that are often on the larger plastic bottles, remove these.
You will require either scissors, a hacksaw or sharp knife and some electric tape or Cut through the plastic bottle about 1/3rd of the way down as indicated in the illustration. Invert the top 1/3rd section of the cut bottle and place in the bottom 2/3rds as indicated in the illustration. I normally place the bait in first to stop getting this over the entry section as the flys will happily feed on this and not enter the trap. Tape or glue the bottle together. In outback Australia where the flys are horrific and have to be seen to be believed, tape is used as these traps are made by the dozen. Cut some wire in to a 'U' shape with some right angled ends that turn in towards the bottle. Either cut a small hole or heat the wire to burn a hole. This will be used as a hanger to be placed over a branch, on a fence, nail, etc. Now your trap is ready to hang wherever you need it. If your problem is in the orchard use yeast or Aussie vegemite with a little sodium sulphide in water to attract fruit flies. If your fly problem is general, a small chunk of meat chopped into the water will attract blowflies. If you have a general fly problem, just place in a small amount of doggy poo with some water. This will cook nicely in the warm air and attract flys like bears to a honey pot. The trap works by luring the flies in to enjoy a feed. They are trapped and eventually die. In turn, the flys rot and attract more flys. You will find the stink quite strong, so keep away from the house or dog kennel.
My family have used this trap for decades and it is amazingly effective. No need to pay for expensive variations. Poor dead Louie. NOTE: Once the bottle is full of dead flys, empty 90% in to your garden and bury the rotting insects. It makes a great nitrogen fertilizer, but boy does it stink. Yes it is organic and nasty chemicals are eliminated.
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| Last Updated on Monday, 12 May 2008 17:07 |
plastic glue.
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Here in Western Victoria, Australia, I catch the firse blowies to hatch and keep the traps going for thr summer. We seldom get a blowey inside.
They will catch the house flies too. Once a trap is "hot", it feeds itself. The flies start to rot as well!
I have a trap made from a 20 lt plastic drum and that will near fill over the summer. I just set all my traps yesterday as there were the first hatched blowies for the summer around. I have baited them with blood from a calf I killed during the winter.
Ed's Comment - Yes, they do take several days to get pungent enough to attract the flies. Once the traps become 'Smell Heaven' for the flies, they do feed themselves from the dead flies as they rot flies. A 20 litre plastic drum is an excellent idea when flies are at there worst.
ED'S COMMENT - I can understand your reasoning, but no, the flys don't escape. Make one as they are simple to put together and you will be surprised how effective they are. I was raised in the Australian outback. You could not appreciate how bad flys are in this part of the world. These traps are amazingly effective. We have another design that I discovered recently when I travelled back home for a rare visit. We will post shortly the photos.
I didn't bother taping, gluing, wire hangers, etc. Just cut a water bottle in half, flipped the top half into the bottom and let gravity keep it there. Poured in a little juice from a can of tuna and within a few hours the fly was trapped inside.
Thanks for the idea.
ED'S COMMENT - Patience. It takes a few days for the brew to pong nicely to attract the flys. The fly trap is a tried and tested trap from the outback of Austalia. The only problem is that you need many traps to keep up with the flys it attracts.
- ED'S COMMENT - Not sure what you are doing wrong, but I have personally used this method for many years. The fly trap is the same as what was developed on Australia's large cattle stations. Some of these stations are bigger than texas with flys to match. I have seen these traps catch thousands of flys per day. Sometimes it takes several days for the rotting food to decay sufficiently to attract the flys. There are many different flytraps concepts available on the web. This one is the best for recycling and simplicity to make.
There are a couple of drawbacks to this design [upright] which are remedied when the trap is turned upside down [inverted]. The bait-water then forms a moat around the bottleneck. At the rim, sandwich some crazy glue or caulk up in between the two surfaces of the bottle halves to form a seal. Go to your local gardening supply/hardware and mimic the design of the Trap & Toss brand fly traps.
Best of luck, Luke Ehrlich