I need help! I’m at my wits end and don’t know what to do.
During the daytime we like to keep our attached-garage door open. Not the door from the house to the garage, but the garage door itself. We don’t use the garage in the traditional sense, unless that sense would be for junk storage. But not smelly junk, just extra junk. The garage is also used as our “smoke room” since we don’t smoke in the house for the benefit of the walls/furnishings and, oh yes, the children.
My problem is this: EVERY stinkin’ day the garage fills with at least a dozen damn flies. I don’t know if they’re venturing in to get away from wind or what, because there’s no shit in here for them to eat/light upon. They just fly around. Seemingly just to spite me. Buggers.
I spray them whenever I see them and get a really strange satisfaction if one drops to the floor as a result the the spray. One of these darn cans (I’ve got FOUR!) says it works for 4 days! Maybe if I found the maggots it would kill them for four days, but the flies just seem to fly away for a minute until the spray dissipates and then they hightail it back into my garage. I’ve also got a fly-strip or two hanging, but in observing the flies I’ve noticed that they fly within about four feet of the ground. Flystrips aren’t that long, and I don’t want to be walking face-first into nasty old fly-strips.
Any suggestions please? I’ve got to get these little nasties out before they drive me bat-shit. I’m on the verge as it is…
I’ve heard that something called “Bunch-Em” is quite effective.
Has something to do with a corner.
Maybe someone will come along with more information.
In the meantime try to get some “Flit” and a “Flit Gun.”
In a local hispanic market the owner hangs a clear cellophane bag filled with water in the doorway. I’d always wondered why and finally asked one day. He states that it keep flys from coming in. I’ve no idea how or why but his place of business, which has an abundance of meat and produce, is for all intents and purposes fly free.
Yeah my grandparents live on a farm that still has a barn full of cows (not their cows) on the property and their property is swarming with flies. My grandmother does this too.
Apparently flies don’t like moving shiny things. Or movement at all, I suppose. So the light coming through the cellophane bag (which is probably suspended in a way that it moves) reflects off the water and creates an ever-moving presence of light. This scares the flies away before they get inside the doorway.
Not sure how effective it would be in an opening the size of a garage door, but 2 or 3 spaced about the opening might do the trick.
Put a screen over the garage door opening; that should mostly solve your problem.
This is a common problem in horse barns. Some solutions I’ve seen:
a roll-down screen, like an oversized window shade. Attach it near the top of the garage door opening (I’ve seen them actually attached to the inside bottom edge of the door itself.) and pull it down to close off the opening. I don’t know it you can get actual spring-loaded rollers this big. Most commonly they have the screen attached at the ceiling, and wrapped around a large rod (wood clothes closet rail, plastic pipe, etc.) which is lowered to the ground via pulleys & ropes at the ends. I think that’s called a Roman shade in house decorating.
a large screened frame, hinged to the ceiling near the garage door opening. Pulls up flat toward the garage ceiling (just below the overhead garage door) when not in use; lowers via pulley to fit in the opening when needed.
a large, light screened frame that you just manhandle into the garage door opening when needed. These can be cheaply made from 1/2" or 3/4" in plastic pipe and rolls of non-metal screen material. I’ve seen them with magnets along the sides that hold them in place against the garage door tracks.
With any of these, you need to do something about the cracks at the edges, or flies will still get in these small openings. But even so, it will cut down a lot on the fly population in your garage.
I saw this while visiting Mexico many years ago. I think it’s probably as effective as putting jars of water on your lawn to keep the neighborhood dogs from relieving themselves there.
For the OP: Some species of flies lay their eggs in water, either standing or flowing, or even just damp veggitation. Consider hanging mesh over your garage. You could rig it up like a big roman shade with a length of PVC pipe as the weight in the bottom. Roll it out just when you want the door open for smoking, obviously.
There’s this webiste called The Straight Dope. You might have heard of it. They have staff that do reports on these sorts of things.
Anyway back to the OP, I also recommened the insect zapper.
Another option is the use of fly traps. You can buy these at any hardware store, they’re basically crab pots for flys. Totally organic, no articifical pesticides, no electricty required and they work very well. But they smell a bit and if you don’t empty them regularl they smell a LOT.
Of course being smokers you probably won’t notice the smell.
I use a No Pest Strip in my garage. The door is not open but the walk-through door has a big gap under it and every day my garage would be full of flies. Hung up a No Pest Strip and have no more flies. First day the floor was littered with dead ones, then after that they stopped coming in. Not sticky like fly paper so you won’t run into it (ugh). Has some kind of insecticide in it but I don’t know what. Comes in a foil wrapper that you open, take it out & put it in a little hanging frame. Lasts about 2 or 3 months; maybe with the door open it would not last as long. You can tell when it runs out; the flies come back. Available at Home Depot for somewhere around $6.
I use fly traps in my barn and they work quite well. It’s basically a clear plastic bag that you fill with water and hang from the rafters. There’s a “fly bait” that makes the water smell good to flies. They crawl in through a plastic gizmo on the top, and can’t get back out. They eventually drown. Each year, these things fill up with dead flies–I’m talking thousands of them.
You can get these traps at ranch supply stores, tack stores, and some garden centers.
