How Can You Naturally Get Rid of Pesky Flies?

  • Thread starter Thread starter wolram
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
Effective strategies for eliminating flies include using pets like cats and dogs, which can catch and eat them. For fruit flies, thorough cleaning and setting traps with fruit, especially banana peels, can yield quick results. Some users suggest unconventional methods, such as catching flies by hand and freezing them or creating a model airplane powered by flies. Electric fly swatters are also recommended for their effectiveness and fun factor. Other discussions touch on the idea of sealing homes to prevent flies from entering and using various household items, like whiskey sauce or food scraps, as traps. While some participants express a casual acceptance of flies as a summer nuisance, others share humorous or creative approaches to pest control. The conversation also veers into dealing with rats, emphasizing the importance of using appropriate traps and baiting techniques, as well as the need for cleanliness to prevent infestations.
  • #51
porums said:
You don't use mousetraps

Didn't work. It's a clever rat. It disappeared again!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #52
Will you be sad if I say it is a stupid rat ? :cool:
 
  • #53
rootX said:
Didn't work. It's a clever rat. It disappeared again!

You need a rat trap, not a mouse trap. Same thing, only twice as big.
 
  • #54
porums said:
Will you be sad if I say it is a stupid rat ? :cool:

I wonder if it's stupid.

It came again into my room and I have sealed it again with me inside. But, why it comes only at my sleeping time :cry: It chose my room again! I think if I were it I wouldn't have made mistake of coming to this room again. I spent 2 hours yesterday and 2 hours today trying to haunt her down lol.
It run amazingly fast and escapes every kind of trap.

But, I have just one more day left :approve:
 
  • #55
rootX said:
I spent 2 hours yesterday and 2 hours today trying to haunt her down lol.

I didn't know you were a ghost, maybe if you tried hunting instead of haunting, it would work better.
 
  • #56
As i am the only bad speller on this forum i think RootX meant he was trying to scare the rat to death.
 
  • #57
rootX said:
It run amazingly fast and escapes every kind of trap.
I can help, I have experience killing rats. I kill one every other week or so next to my composting box. New families seem to migrate regularly in my neighborhood so it's a case of ongoing prevention to keep them out of the garage and the house. It's true that they are clever and can avoid the kill section of a rat trap. You have to force them to access the trap from the proper direction otherwise the trap will fail.

First thing: make sure you use a rat trap, not a mouse trap. Even so, they still come in two sizes: cheaper and smaller ones from the dollar store, and the ones that work. Use one that works because a big rat will survive the cheap one. You want an effective, clean and painless kill for your sake and the rat's.

Then, to force the rat to approach the trap from the kill end and not the other end or the side, place the trap inside a narrow passage made of whatever you have on hand. Bricks work well, short pieces of lumber, anything heavy. I built myself a wooden box for this because it's a permanent trap, but see what else you can find on your side. Make sure there is only one opening for the rat to go inside. Cover this "tunnel" to prevent access to the bait from the top, making sure that it's high enough for the trap to close without hitting the top. Oh, and the tunnel must be right next to the wall where rats travel, not in the middle of the room.

The bait that works best for me is peanuts in the shell. It doesn't dry out so the trap can remain effective for weeks. Now you have to teach the rat that this bait is good. Pry up the small metal sliver that's on the trap trigger and poke one peanut into it. The rat has to wiggle it a bit to take it out, which triggers the trap. Then leave two or three peanuts just outside the trap and on the way to the trigger. One of them should be readily accessible to the rat from outside the tunnel. They will taste it first and learn how good peanuts are. Then they will look for more inside the tunnel, all the way to the one on the trigger. Last meal.
 
  • #58
rootX said:
But, why it comes only at my sleeping time :cry:

Rats are nocturnal. If there's a really easy food supply near their sleeping area, they might get a little snack during the day, but mostly, they spend the daytime doing a lot of sleeping and the nighttime running around looking for food and mates.

If your room is so messy that a rat can hide in there, have you considered just cleaning your room?

Rats and mice don't bother me too much, so content to chase after them when I spot one and live capture it under a bucket or box then transport it back outside. Then again, I've really only done this with mice. I've never had a rat get inside my house. The ones around here are happy to stay outside...they're the cute little brown ones that feed off the grains out in the cattle pastures nearby, not the black mean ones that dumpster dive.

Though, my boyfriend was laughing at me when we were walking around the parks in NYC at night and I spotted all the rats scurrying around cleaning up the food people dropped during the day. I was sitting there saying, "Awww...look, it's a cute rat! Oh, and another! I guess it's dinner time." He's definitely more of a "city boy" who is not fond of wildlife such as rats and raccoons. If I ever convince him to move away from the city with me, I know I'll be in charge of pest control.

Anyway, listen to out of whack's suggestions. Clearly he's an experienced rat catcher. All he needs is a pipe to play. :biggrin:
 
  • #59
wolram said:
As i am the only bad speller on this forum i think RootX meant he was trying to scare the rat to death.
:smile:
I wish that were possible.


out of whack said:
I can help, I have experience killing rats. I kill one every other week or so next to my composting box. New families seem to migrate regularly in my neighborhood so it's a case of ongoing prevention to keep them out of the garage and the house. It's true that they are clever and can avoid the kill section of a rat trap. You have to force them to access the trap from the proper direction otherwise the trap will fail.

First thing: make sure you use a rat trap, not a mouse trap. Even so, they still come in two sizes: cheaper and smaller ones from the dollar store, and the ones that work. Use one that works because a big rat will survive the cheap one. You want an effective, clean and painless kill for your sake and the rat's.

Then, to force the rat to approach the trap from the kill end and not the other end or the side, place the trap inside a narrow passage made of whatever you have on hand. Bricks work well, short pieces of lumber, anything heavy. I built myself a wooden box for this because it's a permanent trap, but see what else you can find on your side. Make sure there is only one opening for the rat to go inside. Cover this "tunnel" to prevent access to the bait from the top, making sure that it's high enough for the trap to close without hitting the top. Oh, and the tunnel must be right next to the wall where rats travel, not in the middle of the room.

The bait that works best for me is peanuts in the shell. It doesn't dry out so the trap can remain effective for weeks. Now you have to teach the rat that this bait is good. Pry up the small metal sliver that's on the trap trigger and poke one peanut into it. The rat has to wiggle it a bit to take it out, which triggers the trap. Then leave two or three peanuts just outside the trap and on the way to the trigger. One of them should be readily accessible to the rat from outside the tunnel. They will taste it first and learn how good peanuts are. Then they will look for more inside the tunnel, all the way to the one on the trigger. Last meal.
Thanks, I will try that.

If your room is so messy that a rat can hide in there, have you considered just cleaning your room?
Yep! :biggrin:

Rats and mice don't bother me too much, so content to chase after them when I spot one and live capture it under a bucket or box then transport it back outside.
That's what I was trying to do.
I sat there silently watching it coming out. I just couldn't kill it or let my parents do the job who would kill it by any mean lol. That was too much - battling with ethics at 1 AM :smile:.
 
  • #60
-Buy 8 packs of cheese cubes
-Scatter them around the floor along with a bunch of mouse traps using only 7 of the packs
-Place a few of the cubes on some of the mouse traps
-Wait for results while eating the remaining pack of cheese cubes
 

Similar threads

Back
Top