http://www.care2.com/greenliving/no-fly-zones-green-pest-strips.html
No Fly Zones: Green Pest Strips
By Melissa Breyer, Producer, Care2 Green Living
Summer brings the sweet ambience of dragonflies, butterflies, and fireflies—as well as infestations of houseflies, cluster flies, and bottle flies. While we’re happy to have the former flitter through the garden, an invasion of flies in the home should be quickly nixed. Find out how to make your home less attractive to the buzzing squadrons and if all else fails, try these homemade, non-toxic fly strips.
What is it with the flies? Where do they come from? What do they want? And why won’t they just go away?! The answers depend on the type of fly, but in general there are a number of small adjustments you can make to greatly decrease their presence in your home.
The first thing to know is that flies lay their eggs in their food; which is always an organic material. Eradicate access to moist organic material and you can see a 90 percent reduction in your fly population. Make sure your trash cans have tightly fitting lids—also make sure to drain food waste, you can even wrap food scraps in newspaper or used paper bags before tossing it in the trash. Doing this helps to dry out the waste—flies require moisture for breeding. If you have a compost container in your kitchen make sure it is also tightly covered and transfer compost contents outside daily.
Preventing flies from entering the house is, obviously, important as well. Check that your window screens fit tightly and repair holes and tears. Don’t leave doors open unless they also have a barrier—either a screen door or a beaded curtain.
Taking these measures will greatly diminish a fly community —but some situations call for more drastic initiatives. Although fly strips certainly don’t win any awards for their charm, they can be effective. Since conventional pesticides and pesticide-impregnated hanging strips are toxic and should be avoided, we have an alternative recipe that is safe and effective.
All Natural Homemade Fly Strips
1. Combine equal parts honey, sugar and water in a saucepan.
2. Boil the mixture, stirring occasionally, until thick.
3. Remove from heat and let cool
4. Cut strips of brown packing tape, punch a hole on one end and loop a piece of string through the hole.
5. Dip the strips in the thick honey mixture and hang outside to dry, about 30 minutes.
6. Hang the strip in the area of worst infestation, and replace often.
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33 comments
add your comment »I use Derevaun P.'s fruit fly catcher method...but I have a little glass bowl. I put about an inch of red wine in it. Stretch plastic wrap tightly over the top and make slits with a paring knife. The wine doesn't get moldy or stinky like fruit. I always have a dish "on the go" and often catch a fly before I've even noticed one in the house. It lasts a long time before needing to be cleaned out. I figure that the flies are at least intoxicated when they pass out and drown. Like Melissa, I really don't like killing things. I carry spiders outside.
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Linda has a point - even though flies are annoying and dirty, the various traps which have them slowly starve to death are cruel. Fly swatters are a quick death and have the added advantage of frustration releaser for the person swatting.
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Not sure if it's already been posted, but for FRUIT FLIES:
Cut the top 1/3 off of a cheap disposable water bottle (the narrow mouth kind - make sure the label is peeled off). Put a banana peel in the bottom of the water bottle. Turn the top you cut off upside down and put it in the bottom part (the mouth will now be pointing down inside the bottle) and tape the edges where they connect with clear tape. Leave it where the fruit flies congregate. For some reason, they fly in but can't figure out how to fly out. For a video, search "fruit fly trap" on YouTube. This got rid of all of my fruit flies! : )
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Here in Spain, the locals hang bags of water all around and also put clear plastic bottles of water on the floor near their doorways to stop the dogs from urinating. It appears that when the animal or insect sees their reflections in the water it magnifies them and makes them look very large which frightens them and they disappear. This is what I have been told. Not sure if it is true, but it usually works.
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there's a tiny bug in my garden eating the lettuce leaves and brocoli leaves and completrely demolished my bok choy....it's too soon for the white butterflie eggs and caterpillars....
What natural can I use to get rid of them. There are many ants in ymygarden too
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I also wanted to thank Derevaun P. for her excellent method of containing fruit flies.
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Epsom salts really do work, as Victoria mentioned. You can also put a line of Epsom salts along any openings in walls, etc...they won't cross the line. I recall this method from my first apartment many moons ago. Epsom salts can be purchased from just about any store, and are not terribly expensive, especially considering they are also excellent for bathing as well. (Non toxic)
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for those of you trying to get the fruit flies, put a piece of fruit in a disposable cup. Cover it with plastic wrap. Poke several holes in it with a toothpick. put it in your infested area. Last year I had a ton of fruit flies and tried several methods. This one works best. They get in, but can't get out
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HELP: I live near a dairy farm and I have a terrible problem with flies. what is the plastic bag filled with water all about? I'll try anything.
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I have a huge problem with earwigs in my garden, I know everything has to eat but they are destroying the vegetable garden and seem to love roses. We feed a lot of wild birds; have squirrels who think they live here and my own pets so insecticide is totally out of the question. If anyone out there has any suggestions I would love to hear about it. Need help. By the way the fly deterrent is a wonderful idea thanks.
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