I have heard that there is a natural solution to controlling a fly problem around the house. It is a mixture of two common, harmless household items. Supposedly you place this mixture around the perimeter of your yard. The process does not kill the flies, but simply causes them to hide. Does anyone know what the two ingredients are?

-- Tammy K Carter (tcarter@mail.arco.com), January 13, 2000

Answers

Years ago when I lived in western NY I had a fly problem. In the fall they would be clustered on my south facing windows, (inside) or any window that had sun, I used fly tapes, swatters, vacuum cleaner but finally i found that if I just took out the screens and let them out I got rid of them, so once a day I would dump the flies out that way. eventually the problem went away, my neighbors still had them though every fall.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), January 13, 2000.

Tammy, have never heard of that. Have a lot of doubts about it, but if you ever find out, I'd be willing to try.

Some various fly scram ideas I've run across over the years:

Clear plastic bags filled with water and hung over doorways, windows, etc. Hasn't worked for me but a friend says she has seen it done in the SW and there weren't any flies. So who knows.

Sew cotton balls (or quilt batting bits, or the stuff in pill bottles) to window and door screens. Supposed to make the flies think that a mama spider has laid a whole bunch of eggs making the area a dangerous one for flies. Hasn't worked for me.

Hang bunches of (pretty much anything, actually) mint or basil at windows and doors and/or grow the plants around the house. Hasn't worked for me.

Sew strips of plastic (thin, like grocery bags) to window and door screens, the flapping is supposed to scare away the flies. Guess what, hasn't worked for me, but it does get a great deal of attention from passers-by.

A slightly more sightly solution, bead curtains at windows and doors. This one I haven't tried.

I stick with fly tapes, fly swatters, and fly traps. Depending on what kind of flies you have, traps might work. You can find them in many gardening catalogs. Or make a funnel with a small tip opening out of stiff paper. put it in a large jar or bottle and tape it down. Bait the jar with water, a bit of dish washing detergent and a chunk of hamburger. The idea is that the flies go down the funnel to get at the rotting meat, and most can't find their way back up and out. The soap interfers with their flying ability and they drown in the water. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 13, 2000.

I have also made fly traps out of 2 liter soda bottles, cutting the top part way down and inserting it upside down into the bottom. Tape securely all the way around, then put a bit of water and hamburger or rotten meat inside. Same principle as the cone of paper. It does catch some flys. My mother remembers her father making traps shaped like cones out of metal window screen material, then burning the flys when it got full. She can't exactly remember how to make them. Can anyone else remember these, or how to make them?

-- Janice Bullock (Janice12@aol.com), January 13, 2000.

I've had very good success controling flies around the house by planting shofly plants (nicandea physalodes). This annual works so well it's almost miraculous, especially considering that we live on a cattle farm.

Flies land on the plant, suck the sap and die, from what I can tell.

You can get seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds (207)926-3400. You only have to buy them once. They are prolific seed producers.

Solve your problem for only 60 cents. No solutions to mix... no mess... no toxicity... and a great conversation piece.

-- walt (longyear@shentel.net), January 16, 2000.

Try Fly Parasites for all kinds of flies. They are tiny insects that lay eggs in the fly pupae, then feed on and destroy them at that stage. Available from Gurney's Seed & Nursery (wwwgurneys.com); 2,000 for $12.99.

-- wk grady (wkbg@pacbell.net), April 19, 2000.

Contacted Pinetree about the Shoofly seeds, they no longer carry them,does anyone else know where we could purchace some? Thanks.

-- George Jensen (gjensenii@hotmail.com), May 13, 2000.

If you have livestock, it will help keep the flies down to have some banties to scratch the fly larvae out of the manure. Otherwise, I just use fly strips and the fly swatter and don't have enough of a problem to complain about. The huge numbers of flies that someone mentioned having in their house on the south side are cluster flies, which, while annoying, are not a health problem like some of the others. I guess they eat nectar or something.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 14, 2000.

Try Flies Be Gone for a highly effective, non toxic, disposable, affordable, and practical flies control. www.FliesBeGone.com

-- Mosche Doman (info@FliesBeGone.com), July 03, 2001.