Flies...Aaarrgghh!

[Christianonthecut]

Summers here, windows, hatches, doors, shutters are all open, oscillating fan is fanning and onboard temperature is comfortable, but the boat is filled with stinking flies.

 

I spent an hour last night before bed swatting!

 

Does anybody have any successful solutions for killing the pesky buzzers? Hate them.

[leeco]

In my boat I have a bit of wall that is painted white and its called the wall of death. I point my bright LED spotlight onto it on the flys end up on the wall and dye.

[Chagall]

Nets on all the windows and hatches, and insect curtains at the doors, a hassle but preferable to swatting. It works on the whole except for the most insistent big bluebottles, who I swear eye up the fluttering door streamers and time their entry to a breeze shift!

 

I have an obsession with chasing flies out, especially when you've just see them crawling all over that fresh dog deposit just outside the hatch!

 

 

edit to add that I bought some of these for the bow doors, you can cut them to size and they have weights at the bottom to stop them billowing about. Black is better than white to still see out.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4PC-MESH-DOOR-INSECT-FLY-CURTAIN-SCREEN-WASP-STOP-FLIES-INSECTS-WHITE-BLACK-/160789192450?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Curtains_Blinds_CurtainFixtures_Accessories_EH&var=&hash=item256fc85f02

Edited July 9, 2013 by Chagall

[KevMc]

the spiders keep the flies at bay - let them spin their webs across the windows and hatches - no flies

[Christianonthecut]

I've made a trap using a 2 litre bottle with a piece of pork in the bottom in water.

 

It's a youtube special, so we'll see how effective it works out to be. Pork is fresh however, so have put it outside to stink up!!

 

Nets and screens are of course the best solution but need a quick fix.

[MHS]

How about a couple of pet Chameleons?

[Naughty Cal]

Mosquito nets

[Québec]

Bought some black fly screens for doors and windows at Aldi this week.

 

And there are numerous 12v and 240v 'bug killers' you can plug in and hang up.

 

e.g.http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41716XNYPGL.jpg

[Penelope]

Latest tip from Facebook

 

Half fill a ziplock bag with water and put four pennies in, hang in doorway where flies come in.

 

Flies will not pass, something to do with prisms imitating eyes of other beasties!

 

Will road test and let you know.

[Christianonthecut]

Pet Chameleons LOL

 

Will try out my tanked pork chop project first.

 

WIll take a look at Aldi for the fly screens tomorrow morning most definitely the easiest solution.

[Weyland Yutani]

I remember this on Mythbusters....

 

Bags of water hung from the ceiling can repel flies.

BUSTED

This myth is based in the theory that refracted light in water confused flies’ compound eyes.

The Build Team made a rig consisting of three chambers separated by trap doors. The first chamber would hold the flies, the second would hold some rotten meat, and the third would hold both rotten meat and a bag of water. They then released over 5,000 flies from the first chamber and waited to see how many flies would go into each of the other two. After the chambers were sealed off, they let all the flies die and collected the corpses to weigh for comparison. The chambers with and without the water contained 35 and 20 grams of flies, respectively, busting the myth.

[Caprifool]

Living on a farm, we have lots of flies. Perhaps difficult while cruising. But, If possible, shut the lights off inside and have a light on outside for 30 minutes before bedtime.

[AidanLincs]

I remember this on Mythbusters....

 

Bags of water hung from the ceiling can repel flies.

BUSTED

This myth is based in the theory that refracted light in water confused flies’ compound eyes.

The Build Team made a rig consisting of three chambers separated by trap doors. The first chamber would hold the flies, the second would hold some rotten meat, and the third would hold both rotten meat and a bag of water. They then released over 5,000 flies from the first chamber and waited to see how many flies would go into each of the other two. After the chambers were sealed off, they let all the flies die and collected the corpses to weigh for comparison. The chambers with and without the water contained 35 and 20 grams of flies, respectively, busting the myth.

 

Mythbusters is fun, but I think I'd like to see a few more experiments. There are two other interpretations of the figures they give at the end of their experiment:

i) The chamber without the bag of water had 75% more flies than the chamber with.

ii) The desire of the flies to enter a chamber "protected" by a bag of water overrides their natural inclination to avoid it. The flies were presumably attracted by the strong scent of rotten meat. Most households (and boatholds, one would imagine) tend to contain fewer sources of putrefaction. Is there a difference in behaviour when comparing flies on a scavenging hunt, following several scents, with flies making a, uhm, fly-line to a clearly identifiable source of food?

 

I'm not convinced that a few pennies in a bag of water will deter flies, but I'm not convinced by Mythbuster's experiment that the hypothesis has been disproved.

 

I have a rubber ducky in my cratch, and another rubber ducky in the engine room. No flies flying through either opening. Make of that what you will.

[MtB]

I have a rubber ducky in my cratch, and another rubber ducky in the engine room. No flies flying through either opening. Make of that what you will.

To expand on this principle, I once knew a bloke who dug an elephant trap in his garden. It definitely works, because not one single elephant has been seen in his garden since.

 

 

MtB

Edited July 9, 2013 by Mike the Boilerman

[Peter-Bullfinch]

We are aged hippies....so we burn incense sticks. Seems to help a lot. I like sandalwood. Poundland does packs of five different different ones for...yes.a pound.

[Phil Ambrose]

We have a fly curtain consisting og lots of coloured cord which hangs in our front doors, but nothing on the stern doors or Houdini hatches. We dont get many flying insects of any sort, however if one does come in we have a fun bit of kit to use. We have a tennis racket fly swat which is made of wire and is electronically charged, easy to swat flies with and very satisfying when you make contact as we get a "crack" followed by blue sparks and smoke, great fun.

 

Phil

[Chop!]

Did you buy your boat from the Warwickshire Fly Boat Company by any chance?

[tafelberg]

Whisky. They hate it. I put a cup of whisky out and they magically disappear.

[KevMc]

We were sitting outside a pub last night and there were no flies/wasps/bees around and I noticed that they had containers pull sof what looked like juice about 10 feet up a number of the trees - these also had quite a few dead insects floating inside so maybe providing an alternative location for them works well

[tree]

We are aged hippies....so we burn incense sticks. Seems to help a lot. I like sandalwood. Poundland does packs of five different different ones for...yes.a pound.

snap it works and i also eat a LOT of garlic...hmm... maybe that helps as well lol , but I have to eat it as i get horrid reactions if a norty biting flying thingie nips me. Infact I havegiven this lickle tip to other moorers here at my farm moorings right next to the river, as we get lots of em zooming by

Edited July 10, 2013 by tree

[Weyland Yutani]

I can't believe the level of violence and vigilantism some of the members are employing here. A fly makes its way onto your boat and you kill them outright, without any regard to their circumstances or upbringing. Many of these creatures have had, through no fault of their own, terrible upbringings and experiences which the more lucky of us can't even begin to imagine.

 

For whatever reasons, be it political or just terrible luck, they have been ignored by the system and slipped through the net into a life of desperation and moral ambiguity.

 

I just hope that many of you stop to think the next time you discover one of them on your boat and perhaps even consider 'There but for the grace of God go I".

[Phil Ambrose]

We were sitting outside a pub last night and there were no flies/wasps/bees around and I noticed that they had containers pull sof what looked like juice about 10 feet up a number of the trees - these also had quite a few dead insects floating inside so maybe providing an alternative location for them works well

When I was moored on the Broads it was quite common in the pubs for people when ordering a round to ask for a half for the wasps. Every table outside would have a half full pint glass sitting in the middle quietly drowning happy wasps leaving the drinkers to enjoy their pints unhindered by wee beasties.

 

Phil

[chrislyn]

We have a fly curtain consisting og lots of coloured cord which hangs in our front doors, but nothing on the stern doors or Houdini hatches. We dont get many flying insects of any sort, however if one does come in we have a fun bit of kit to use. We have a tennis racket fly swat which is made of wire and is electronically charged, easy to swat flies with and very satisfying when you make contact as we get a "crack" followed by blue sparks and smoke, great fun.

 

Phil

Here here......they give quite a belt if you touch it by mistake,,,

[MHS]

Whisky. They hate it. I put a cup of whisky out and they magically disappear.

Are you sure you don't just drink the cup (glass?) of whisky and then don't care about the flies?

[Capt.Golightly]

Many people swear by hanging a plastic bag with water and half a dozen copper coins in it in the doorway or window through which the flies enter, the theory is that it works by refracting light off the millions of tiny bubbles generated and to a flies compound eye this looks like a million Disco balls flashing and scares it off....I'm hoping it works on midges and mossies too!

 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/insects-arachnids/water-bags-repel-flies1.htm

Edited July 11, 2013 by Capt.Golightly