Simple solution to Zombie Apocalypse(s)?

So movie Zombies are a problem because they multiply quickly and become a massive horde of fast moving infectors that can readily sniff out healthy humans to infect.

In all the depictions I’ve seen (i.e. Walking Dead, World War Z, etc.) they are somewhat stupid and act on base instincts.

We’ve also seen them climb (or shamble) up stairs.

So in the large cities, I propose baiting the rooftops of tall buildings with attractants that are tied just out of reach. Zombies will step off the roof trying to get to the bait and splatter on the ground below.

If Zombies follow noise, tie a windchime or other noise makers. If Zombies follow live bait, then tie some live bait.

This should steadily kill Zombies, limiting their numbers and eliminating the giant horde swarms. Any horde swarms that are left can be lured to the trap, where they eliminate themselves.

Heck, why aren’t all buildings already equipped with auto-Zombie elimination devices?

Have any of the zombie universes portrayed mass zombie-zappers of any kind? It does seem like a variety of self-disposing systems could be set up. I hadn’t ever thought of using ol’ man Gravity, though.

ETA: “Zombies shamble in… and don’t shamble out!”

I just saw World War Z and the epilogue scenes showed zombies being attracted to football stadiums and set afire.

In the book version of World War Z:

Troops use canine companions to go up to the tops of cleared, uninfested buildings, and bark to attract the zombies from other buildings to do exactly what you’re proposing - walk off of buildings in pursuit of the dog.

Do zombies have the intelligence and coordination to climb stair and ladders?

Best strategy is just to wait until insects devour the walking corpses, as they do regular corpses.

Only the ones that are a danger to people. Otherwise, all the people who live on the second floor would be completely safe and you’d have no Zombie movie. And the new way to survive the Zombie Apocalypse would be to simply get to the second floor.

I always thought the best way to hole up against a zombie apocalypse was to stock up on supplies on the upper floors of a building and blow all of the first set of stairs. Zombies can’t climb. Then you simply make runs down using a set of pull-up rope ladders.

I don’t think zombies can swim. So dig a moat around them, fill it with napalm, and burn them undead sumbitches.

Well, in the movie World War Z, the zombies made an informal human pyramid to get over a high wall. See this photo for example.

Return Of The Living Dead did, but… :smiley:

They don’t need to, they can just walk across the bottom.

Could you attract zombies with those corpse flowers that bloom once a century?

No, zombies want fresh meat.

You’re no fun.

Wouldn’t work. The insects feeding off of the zombies would be infected, and thus would lose interest in eating any part other than the brain, which would in turn heighten the zombie’s already strong drive towards brain-eating.

Think you could use corpse flowers as camouflage, or even to repel zombies?

In the game “Half-Life 2”, there was a section called, “We Don’t Go to Ravenholm” (video link) which featured some fun zombie traps - walkways with gas jet traps, spinning blades, and a generator/lever which let you drop a car on zombies, repeatedly.

In The Walking Dead Season 3, there was a character holed up in a small town who littered the main street with zombie traps.

He put live birds and hamsters in cages, placed the cages on tables, and then surrounded the tables with punji sticks.

Zombies would impale themselves on the sticks trying to get to the animals. The traps wouldn’t kill the zombies outright, but it would trap them.

Hi Kolga. I saw the movie, but haven’t read the book. I know in both, there’s an extended fight between humanity and zombies. How well did the tactic you described work? It seems like it would clear most of the zombies from a city in short order. Or did the zombies find a way into the bait and thus defeat the trap?

I know the plot demands the traps ultimately fail so they can have interesting melees between humans and zombies, but I am thinking the trap described in OP would be highly effective and would work most anywhere. You just need a tall place (if no buildings nearby, then a water tower, a grain silo or just a cliff), a pole, some rope and some bait. Very simple and easily replicated all over the place and each trap can disable thousands of zombies or more.