We are having a particularly bad fly season for some reason this year, the worst I have seen in this area. I went out and bought 4 of the jar type fly traps with the funnel entry. I have been sitting and watching the traps while I drink my coffee on the patio. It became quickly apparent that only 2% of the flys that enter the funnel make the trip all the way down. The traps are catching some flys but not nearly as many as I had hoped. I decided to do a little experiment. One trap I left stock and the other three I modified by cutting down the length of the funnel. The first trap I cut off about 1/2" of funnel, the next trap 1" and the last one 1 1/2" off of a 2" funnel. I set all 4 traps on a bench and checked on them every 30 min. or so roughly. The shorter the funnel the more flies I would catch. The last one with the shortest funnel had over 90% of the flies that entered the trap make the trip all the way down into the jar. It caught more flies in 4 hours than the stock trap caught in 7 days. Now the one small draw back was that maybe 10% of the flies it caught made it back out of the funnel because it was so short and the opening was larger but even with the few that escaped, I was still far ahead. I am almost certain that the manufacturer knew that the shorter funnels would catch more but they opted for a design that was more escape proof. that’s all I can figure.
I imagine that flies escaping would be bad advertisement for the manufacturer.
I think so too, most of the ones that that escaped end up going back in anyway.
This could be the invention that nets you a bundle. Sell a version with interchangeable funnel bottoms with instructions for the user to experiment with the different sizes.
I would not call that science, that is technology, you are just fumbling with one simple longitudinal parameter.
Try improving the liquid to attract and kill the flies. Attract them more reliably, kill them faster. Spoiler: for wasps schweppes bitter lemon is astoundingly effective.
I would like to kill them faster they flounder around for about 2 hours before they finally go into the water
You can do better that that. Science! Make the water sweeter and stickier, and put some soap in it, to reduce the superficial tension, so they get soaked faster, and put some rotting meat in it, that really attracts them. Just for starters. They possibilities are endless.