Remember the days, when one could buy a fly swatter with which flies could be squashed. The type had a rubber head, was a bit heavy, and sort of snapped when in the final phase of execution. Eventually the flex area broke and a new purchase was necessary. The modern light plastic swatters, simply fan the fly, and it often escapes. Some or so light that it is almost impossible to get near enough to the fly to inflict the necessary damage. More like a kite than a real swatter. My wife just bought another of these useless modern fly "fans". Another fly weapon that doesn't work is the sticky hangers that one use to use. I bought some and never saw a fly stuck. In the old days if flies were around the sticky hanger would be loaded with flies. I suggest there is a conspiracy between the manufactures of these products and the flies. Certainly the products are not tested for efficacy. China may eventually fill this niche.
Eh - just order your fly-swappers and goo strips from Ecuador. We have robust fly-mashing and fly-enstickening equipment here, probably because we also have robust flies to go with them.
i regularly use the fly-paper strips and they DO catch the flies...takes a couple days of it being out/hanging though.
Maybe you should tell your local manufacturers, and start selling something that works in Canada. Fly-instickening tapes should attract flies immediately. The flies should be seeking the paper out, not landing by accident.
It's probably because the Canadian Government deemed the fly-attracting chemical on old-style fly-gummers to be a carcinogen; the new ones aren't nearly so effective, and the ones we have down here are the old-timey, cancer-causing kind, like I remember from Grandma's kitchen in my childhood.
Cats are good fly catchers but watch out for anything in the way. :) We have some pretend flowers that get stuck on the window and they seem to be working for our blow and bush flies. The two main house problems. Liz
Didn't people used to make their own flypapers? I seem to recall reading about soaking strips of cloth in something sticky, probably with added arsenic, which might be a bit difficult to get hold of these days. It's the sort of hint you get in old books of household management, along with cleaning pewter with cabbage leaves. Most of our flies come in for the leftover catfood, left by a cat who counts them as they go past, not lifting a paw.
My cat just teases them when they're at ground level. Fly strips used to be honey and arsenic or rat poison; this is (understandably) frowned upon today.... But it is the source of the expression "You'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar." (This refers to the solubility of arsenic in acids; in honey it just tends to suspend rather than dissolve.....)
