This summer I’ve gotten into the habit of sitting on the porch with our dogs and Rocco, our African Grey. In fact, if I do not have Rocco with me on the porch, he will begin yelling, “PORCH”.
There are very few mosquitos, thanks in part to the bat houses we have on our house, barn, and shed. But we have flies. I can handle plain everyday flies (House flies), but I hate stable flies, deer flies, and horse flies. Our horses/barn are around 100 yards away from the porch where I sit each day from 3-7.
This is where swatting comes into play. I’ve gotten very good at humanely dispatching flies with my fly swatter. I have nailed as many as 12 in a row without a miss. Stable flies are the quickest. I need to perfectly position my arm/hand/swatter in order to nail a stable fly. Deer and Horse flies are actually a bit sluggish. I rarely, if ever, miss one of them.
Anyone else enjoy swatting? My weapon of choice is just a plain, vanilla swatter. I’ve toyed with the idea of one of those battery operated fly zappers that allow you to pick them off right out of the air, but I must be old fashioned., preferring the retro swatters.
I don’t use tools; hand swatting seems more sporting. Technique is all - one satisfying maneuver is sneaking up on one of the filthy insects, positioning my hands to each side of it and then clapping them together to catch the fly as it rises up in attempted evasion.
I had to be careful swatting flies back when we had our cocker spaniel, Sally. She resented my stalking flies and would start growling as I stealthily approached one (even if it was across the room), and as I pounced on it she would erupt into growling and snapping, though not actually making contact with me. Weird animal.
My only problem with clap-swatting is having to go wash my hands after each kill. I’m usually drinking a beer and smoking a bowl, so hygiene (Hi, Jean!) is foremost.
our dogs ignore the fly carnage, as does Rocco. I’ve swatted a fly off the side of Rocco’s porch cage. The dogs will snatch bees out of the air.
Once, my brother, a couple of friends, and I spent a few days at a friend’s uncle’s cabin in the woods. On the front porch were a couple of rocking chairs, and a huge swatter. The handle had been fashioned from a length of 1/2-inch rubber hose. The blade had been cut from a piece of tire tread. You could hammer nails with the thing.
We thought it was a joke . . . until we saw the wasps that hung around the area.
Hey, I’m the coolest. I got a telescoping swatter from the local Funeral home when they brought me a gift basket.
I tell folks about it and the Funeral home part, it always creeps people out.
Best swatter ever!
I’ll have it til murder hornets carry it off.
My cat is a much better fly “swatter” than I am. Just the other day I was chasing a fly around for 10 minutes to no avail.
.
Cat strolls in from the back yard, spots the fly and killed it in under a minute.
An interesting genre of collectibles, funeral home gimmes. Fans, flyswatters, and what else, calendars, yardsticks, mortality chart refrigerator magnets?
I once read that the house fly has poor depth perception so if you can strike straight down, they won’t see it coming. Swatting at an angle is less effective.
Did you know that early fly swatters were just a striking surface on a handle?
"We are very proud of this new, lethal edition to our family. However, we must warn that instead of leaving flies whole for easy cleanup, it may splatter them. "
I have to shoot them three times with my old v.1 bug a salt. I’m in!
