UV fly killer - completely useless

[dotnw]

I've just bought a new small portable UV fly killer, put it in a very small room that has at the momemt 4 flies in it, and the flies are completely ignoring it. What a waste of money. Any advice please?

The flies that I get are those black ones that are about 3/4 size of a blue bottle, and don't seem to be "afraid" of you when you brush them away - within a few seconds, they just land back down again, near to where you brushed them away. (But I do find them quite difficult to swat though, as they are quite quick.)

Thanks, regards, dnw.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Different insects are attracted to different things, such as light, smell, heat, particular chemicals. I have an insectocutor, and it mostly attracts moths (so it's hardly ever used). A quick inspection reveals no flies in it at all.

If you want to attract flies, you probably need a piece of fresh dog's mess or rotting meat in there. Wasps are partial to fresh raw meat. Mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide (a lump of dry ice, perhaps a fizzy drink), lactic acid, and infra-red.

[Huge]

IME, the small portable ones are useless. We hang one in the cloud of midges that accumulates outside our front door and they ignore it.

OTOH, the big "professional" one we have in our kitchen works well,

*except* when the sun shining through the windows provides a better source of UV.

But it cost £120 and needs new tubes every year.

[Andy R]

A bit low tech but fly paper works, it just looks unpleasant.

Rgds

Andy R

[Howard]

Good job I read your post 'cos I was thinking of getting one...I aint now though!!!

>

[Mary Fisher]

Or cooked meat.

We have battery powered uv 'zappers' for when we're camping in mosquito and midge places - I react very badly to bites. They work well but I feel guilty eveey time I hear the zttt :-(

The good thing is that they don't seem to work fo anything bigger :-)

Mary

[nightjar]

We have high-tech fly paper - a UV unit with sticky translucent plastic in front of the lights, which changes itself every 12 hours. Unlike the zapper type, you don't get insect parts dropping from it and, if you want to do an insect audit, you can unroll the film after you have changed it and count them. It is very effective.

Colin Bignell

[Andrew Gabriel]

I tried running the Insectocutor in my bedroom, but you get woken up every hour or so with a pop-buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz- hissssssssssssssssss-phut. Sometimes it goes on for a few minutes before the insect finally burns out and stops glowing orange. Then you get small wafts of the resulting burning smell. Combined with it being rather ineffective at catching the things I wanted to fly into it, I gave up.

[DaveH]

Where can you buy one?

[Ian Stirling]

Wattage of the UV lights? I found some small ones with 'uv' LEDs in utterly useless, but one with 2*8W tubes worked fine. Hmm. I wonder if UV-C (germicidal) tubes would attract insects. (Though be hideously dangerous to anyone who could see them, or have skin touched by the light)

[nightjar]

We hire ours from Rentokil.

Colin Bignell

[Mary Fisher]

LOL! You must be a light sleeper - or you have a powerful zapper which deals with larger insects than midges and mosquitoes.

Mary

[GymRatZ]

We've got a greatDane X Greyhound dog thing that does his best to eat anything that resembles a fly.

Probally is useless as your zapper, but far more entertaining as long as small children are kept out of the way of the lumbering beast!

:¬)

[Dave Liquorice]

Some flys do ignore the UV killers. One particular sort we get we have nicknamed "floaters" because thats how they fly, they just sort of float about rather than buzz around quickly. They are about 2 or 3mm long.

We have a Micromark UV fly killer in the kitchen, roughly a 4" dia by

12" high slatted cylinder. It does work but really only effectively at night when the lights are off, occasionally a blue bottle will get zapped during the day. But unlike Mr Gabriel's ours zaps quickly with quite a splat. It certainly deals with the midges and blue bottles. Sadly moths as well but not many moths get into the house.

[newboy]

[dotnw]

Cool responses, thanks. I have bought some fly paper and bell traps from some ebay sellers, and look forward to getting them. I have contacted the uv seller and he has agreed to refund me, which is good. Meanwhile, I have not opened any of my windows this morning, and I have spent 2 hours going through the house with a rolled up tea towel and swatting them by hand. I've got about 25 so far, and I think I'm done. Phew. Regards, dnw. PS: the electric fly swotter looks very interesting.

[Mary Fisher]

LOL!

Everyone needs a hobby ...

Mary

[dotnw]

Yes, I remember last night, after I had literally worked up a sweat thwacking the little blighters, I saw one solitary fly buzzing around a once fly infested room, and I said out loud "looking for your mates are you? Can't find 'em can you!"

I think the heat's getting to me.

-dnw.

[Mary Fisher]

LOL! Mind you, I've seen lots of people talking to insects - as though they understand English ...

It's clouding over, we might get blessed rain soon. We need it to swell the beans and other edibles in the garden.

Mary

[dotnw]

Yes, that's really silly isn't it!!! Most gardeners know that insects only understand French.