Combating flies in an outdoor kitchen/patio

[Murdy]

We had problems with the Japanese Beetles and bought 2 traps a couple weeks ago. Says right on them to put at least 30 feet away from whatever you are trying to protect. Trapped about a quarter of a 13 gallon bag's worth of beetles in about a week. Seems to be working good.

[Panhead John]

DogFaced PonySoldier I have used the bags before and while they do work, there’s not much out there that is going to be 100% effective. You will still have occasional flies. They do not start working instantly as claimed on your bag. The granules inside the bag take some time to fully dissolve in the water, then create the odor that attracts them to their death by drowning. By shaking it up as you did, it did speed up the process. But, you have to look at this method as a long term project, just not something for the weekend. The longer you continue keeping bags out 24/7 the better they work. Over time you should see less and less flies.

There is no reason to change the bags weekly. I’ve left mine out for a month or more. As long as there is room for more flies in the bag, you’ll be good. I only changed mine when they were totally full of dead flies. Not sure of your setup on the patio, but if you’re using 2 bags, make sure you’re not in the middle of the 2 bags where they’re placed. If you’re directly between 2 bags, the flies will be going back and forth between them possibly, and then being attracted to your food. Unless you have a huge back yard, one bag will be sufficient. Flies can smell odors from a few miles away. I’d suggest using only one bag and place it at least 50 feet from your patio if possible. Remember this also, for every 1 dead fly in your bag, you’re preventing hundreds and hundreds of future flies.

I’d recommend to continue using these from spring thru the winter, or when they’re no longer active. If you’ll do this, I’m sure you can drastically reduce your problem. One more thing, any dog poop in the yard is gonna compete with the fly traps for their attention. So, keep as much of it picked up as you reasonably can.

EDIT: I’m changing my recommendation on how often to change the bags. I stated above that they don’t need changing weekly. I should have said change them whenever they’re full. Some people will have more flies than others, which might require weekly changing.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

We had that, too. I broke my ceiling fan on the back patio this weekend (DOH!), but we did have a floorstanding oscillating fan blowing. I need to replace that ceiling fan this weekend, I think. <sigh> More money to spend.

[Richard Chrz]

I find having. Few fans moving air by the table reduces the numbers down, not perfect, but Better then without fans.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

So this weekend we had some visitors from out of the country, we spent a significant amount of time out on the back patio, cooking, drinking, assembling my new griddle, etc.

The flies were ATROCIOUS. I haven't seen that many flies in ages, I don't know what the problem is. We do have a dog now (3rd summer) but it's never been that big of a problem, I do need to have The Boy go do some yard cleaning, I'm sure.

Anyways, I went and got 3 of those fly trap bags from Lowe's - at $5 each. Jeez. So they are the Black Flag brand, that's the only ones they had. It said on the instructions that they begin working in minutes. That wasn't true at all, I found. In fact, it didn't seem to work much at all the first couple of hours, then we went and shook it up a bit and hung up a second bag. I think that was the trick - the instructions don't say anything about shaking it up, and I assumed the little "clump" of powder in the bag would just easily dissolve in the water, but it didn't seem to do much until we really aggressively shook it up.

So the next day, both bags were getting a bunch of flies, but we had even more. We spent Sunday out back swatting flies and had dozens on the ground on the patio, but now here we are after Tuesday and those bags are full. Not bulging, but they need to be changed. Seriously.

So I thought, hell, if I'm going to be going through 2-4 a week, I need to find a cheaper source. So I look on Amazon and lo and behold, they're not any cheaper! In fact, lots of them are MORE expensive! About the cheapest I can find is buying in bulk of 8-12 at a time and they're still at least as expensive as I paid in the store. Who woulda thunk???

So is this what you guys are paying? $5/each and going through them once a week or more? I figure 2 for good coverage on my patio, but now I'm wondering just like someone said above, are they just attracting more from elsewhere?

Like I said, I gotta get the teenager to clean up some dog p00, but it's not bad - I mean, it's not like I can smell dog p00 on my patio from where she goes out in the yard. This is ridiculous, though, not only are they driving us off the patio, they inevitably get in the house going in and out and I ABSOLUTELY HATE FLIES! They drive me freaking batty.

So anyone got a better source than Amazon or Lowe's? We have TSC and Atwood's, do they have a "store brand" that actually works, or does WM or Dollar General carry something that is cheaper and actually works well?

[Clark]

Twisted Martini I hope you have a small dog!

[Twisted Martini]

Are you spying on me? Seriously though I do diligently.

[Spinaker]

I found that setting out the bag traps just attach more bugs, IDK maybe the mosquitos and flies are smarter in MN. LOL.

I finally broke down and called a company to have them come out and spray, best decision I ever made. It helps a lot.

I have the Bug Assault, but that is more of a party gag than anything. I find that I use it to shoot people with more than flies. Although, it is fun to blast yellow jackets with it.

[HawkerXP]

What he doesn't show us is the horse on the other end of that black rope.
DogFaced PonySoldier

[Donw]

DogFaced PonySoldier I do live next to large saltwater marshes so many of these are deer flies and other biting types in quantities most people wouldn’t have. I keep 2 going, each about 100 feet from where people are so we aren’t bothered with the smell. No wonder my favorite governmental agency is mosquito control which controls the mosquitos on our property and marshes.

[Panhead John]

The reason they work so well is the ingredients in the bag are designed to smell like Clark , a well known attractor of flies. In fact, if you read the back of the bag it actually says "Smells Like Clark"

[Panhead John]

+2

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

W00000000W that is GROSS. One WEEK??? How many bags do you have like that??? That is a lot of GoshDanged flies, man! I can imagine how bad that would smell.

[Donw]

On Sunday mornings I switch out my bags. Decided to take a photo of one after one week.

[Clark]

Twisted Martini Pick up the dog poop in your yard.