I wonder if someone can explain this to me. Last weekend, I had sort of a fly infestation in the laundry room, whose door leads to the backyard. I got out my swatter and killed about 15 of them…in 3 mins. Usually, I’m lucky if I kill just one of them in that time, but 15!!! Over the next hour, I killed about 5 more here and there as easily as the other ones. Later, I took out my recycling and killed one on the recycling can…with a 2 liter bottle. Did I just happen upon flies that were dying or can something environmental (It was about 95 that day)affect their movements that unusually slow methods can catch them?
Usually the very old flies can’t get out of the way of a swatter. One time I hand swatted one only to have it “give up” and not even try to fly away.
I know they are sometimes too tired or too cold (A/C) to really make an escape or dodge the swatter. I don’t think it is much more complicated.
They could’ve been dehydrated/starving too. I doubt there’s much food in the laundry room, and if you don’t have a sink/the room isn’t mildewy, they would probably run out of water sources and dehydrate pretty fast @ 95 degrees.