Flies in the library, big ones. Ideas?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the presence of large fruit flies in a college library and explores various humorous and unconventional ideas for dealing with the issue. Participants share suggestions ranging from personal attire to more drastic measures, reflecting a mix of frustration and creativity.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Humorous

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses annoyance at the flies and suggests wearing a sombrero with fly tape to attract them.
  • Another proposes using a laser pointer to deal with the flies, while others suggest more extreme measures like smoking in the library or introducing bats.
  • A detailed method is shared for capturing flies using hand movements and then creating a model airplane powered by the flies.
  • Some participants joke about the situation, with one mentioning a famous World War II siege gun as a humorous solution.
  • There are suggestions to use frogs as a natural means of fly control in the library.
  • Several participants misinterpret the thread's topic, thinking it was about fleas instead of flies, leading to further humorous exchanges.
  • Some participants mention the potential for complaints to the librarian or local news stations to address the issue.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on how to handle the flies, with multiple competing views and humorous suggestions remaining throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying levels of frustration and creativity, but there are no established solutions or agreements on the effectiveness of the proposed ideas. The discussion reflects a blend of serious and humorous approaches to the problem.

  • #31
Why are people allowed to eat in the library? If I had tried that when I was in college, I would have been very firmly "asked" to leave. Bugs love remnants of human foods, and many of them can subsist on leather, vellum, paper, glues, etc. Sorry to be a wet blanket in an entertaining thread, but our university's library had some really strict (and entirely understandable) rules and it's disappointing to see such disrespect for the real books in such a repository.
 
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  • #32
turbo said:
Why are people allowed to eat in the library? If I had tried that when I was in college, I would have been very firmly "asked" to leave. Bugs love remnants of human foods, and many of them can subsist on leather, vellum, paper, glues, etc. Sorry to be a wet blanket in an entertaining thread, but our university's library had some really strict (and entirely understandable) rules and it's disappointing to see such disrespect for the real books in such a repository.

There are no books on the first floor of our library, which is where all the computing/eating happens.
 
  • #33
Office_Shredder said:
I've heard that flies can sense the change in air pressure from a hand moving rapidly towards them and get out of the way from that, so it's easier to kill them by moving your hand (or crushing device) slowly toward them until you're just about touching them
It's not so much that they can sense it but they do ride it.

This is why effective flyswatters are heavily perforated.
 
  • #34
ArcanaNoir said:
There are no books on the first floor of our library, which is where all the computing/eating happens.
Bugs can crawl, fly, and reproduce and end up in the stacks, eating valuable old books. There is no way to effectively ban the bugs from the upper levels of the library without making those levels inaccessible to the students.
 
  • #35
DaveC426913 said:
It's not so much that they can sense it but they do ride it.

This is why effective flyswatters are heavily perforated.

It must feel like surfing, to the fly.
 
  • #36
turbo said:
Bugs can crawl, fly, and reproduce and end up in the stacks, eating valuable old books. There is no way to effectively ban the bugs from the upper levels of the library without making those levels inaccessible to the students.

Maybe not completely, but we don't have any flies anyway :) I mostly meant we weren't getting our smudgy food hands all over books.
 

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