Flies, Flies, FLIES!!

[wade]

No problem, I found it a bit outdated but was trying to make a general point, The testing was done in a suburban setting, not sure where you got the most zappers are used for general higenic pest control in kitchens, however the article does need to be dissected for a general point and I will not get into a debate over it, because that's not the point I am trying to make.

Yes it makes a good general point.

One of the difference between the UK and the US may be that the zappers are relatively uncommon in homes here but they are present in almost every commercial kitchen (often more than one) as one of their recommended pest control measures. Alternatives such as disposable sticky strips along with an attractant are starting to be used more. One I have even seen advertised is like a roll of sticky fishing line that goes across an area of the kitchen - as more flies stick to it you just wind the line in a bit to expose more sticky string. Simple but probably effective.

Quote:

 
I did not write the article  and I understand statistics, you can make numbers work any way you want, my point is and let me be very clear on this.

• do you want bugs exploding all over the place near your guests or where you cook, weather they are nutritious, carry bacteria, viruses or not. (post #24)

• These zappers suck for mosquitoes and flies, period, whether they kill good insects or not, the fact remains they suck. I have been down this road a few times. The UV zappers are supposed to work fairly good at dusk as the flies are attracted to the UV light as Wade pointed out in post#23, but this is a moot point in the daylight hours.There is absolutely no benefit to this device, they actually attract the bugs, wouldn't you want to repel them!   The best solution I have found for most pests is air circulation, or a simple device like flypaper for flies as Chefwillie has done, but air circulation is immediate !

Here's a link to some homemade FlyTraps, Mods can delete if they need to.

The Food Standards Agency here in the UK (Our equivalent of your FDA) recommend that no food preparation areas or utensils should be within 1m (3 feet) of a zapper. Further away from that would not cause any meaningful risk of contamination. This is usually the way it works out anyway because, as you say, they are pretty useless when they are in brightly lit areas so they usually get put in darker remote areas away from the food preparation. I use one in my kitchen (in a darker corner) and it works well. Outside in daylight - forget it!. 

The homemade fly trap link looks good. They are similar to the wasp traps that we have made since I was a kid. Very effective at catching wasps but never really thought of them for catching flies up till now

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[sqwib]

 
Yes it makes a good general point.

One of the difference between the UK and the US may be that the zappers are relatively uncommon in homes here but they are present in almost every commercial kitchen (often more than one) as one of their recommended pest control measures. Alternatives such as disposable sticky strips along with an attractant are starting to be used more. One I have even seen advertised is like a roll of sticky fishing line that goes across an area of the kitchen - as more flies stick to it you just wind the line in a bit to expose more sticky string. Simple but probably effective.

Quote:

The Food Standards Agency here in the UK (Our equivalent of your FDA) recommend that no food preparation areas or utensils should be within 1m (3 feet) of a zapper. Further away from that would not cause any meaningful risk of contamination. This is usually the way it works out anyway because, as you say, they are pretty useless when they are in brightly lit areas so they usually get put in darker remote areas away from the food preparation. I use one in my kitchen (in a darker corner) and it works well. Outside in daylight - forget it!. 

The homemade fly trap link looks good. They are similar to the wasp traps that we have made since I was a kid. Very effective at catching wasps but never really thought of them for catching flies up till now

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Very interesting, I can see them being beneficial indoors especially something like a chicken Coupe or a barn with livestock, but in my home no way. lol.

I don't think this helps the OP though, If it were me I would try everything suggested and see what works, every situation is different.

Quick story: I get these weird smallish black flies under my deck every year, they swarm like a cyclone, a few dozen at a time, pretty freaky, any how they come back almost every year since I moved into the house in 1991, since then I have removed the patio roof and installed a deck and they come back in the same place, after a few weeks they are gone and won't be seen till next year pretty strange, If the kids are complaining about them I put a fan on the patio and this gets rid of them, but I usually work around their schedule if its their time we leave them be because we know they will be gone in a few weeks.