Best House Fly Attractant Bait For Catching and Trapping Flies

[orloffer]

Why not? That sounds like a self-renewing bait?

... and they can't escape, right?

... but still

I guess it would kind of be a self-renewing bait. Well, I think they could escape if they tried, though. The maggots can climb up sides of the plastic jar, and if they grew up into flies they could just fly out the holes at the top.

 

[orloffer]

I used the Flowtron BK-40D bug zapper last year to get rid of the fly. You can get rid few hundred flies a day. The home made bottle which similar to the jar setup didn't work that well and only got about 15 flies in a week. As far as the bait, I used the left over parts from the chicken.
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Wow, that's a lot of flies! I considered a fly zapper like that one, but didn't want to deal with the electricity. Also, I have heard the strong electric zap can cause fly parts to spew out into the air (?). I can tell they work really well, though. And I think the electric zaps would be satisfying to hear.

 

[JedJackson]

Canned cat or dog food works well as bait, in my experience. The stinkier the better.

 

[speedy2020]

Wow, that's a lot of flies! I considered a fly zapper like that one, but didn't want to deal with the electricity. Also, I have heard the strong electric zap can cause fly parts to spew out into the air (?). I can tell they work really well, though. And I think the electric zaps would be satisfying to hear.

There is burned smell now and then and it does attract more flies. As far as the safety go, I only fill half full of the bait container. You could thicken by adding other material to the mix or use dried bait. The lid on the bait container also keep the liquid bait secure without spill. There isn't much fly body parts outside the zapper, but do have few flies with burned wing. I highly recommend, don't use on windy or cloudy day and unplug the power source when not in use. If you want to get rid the fly fast, this is the best method. You can reduce the fly population in weeks and not months.

 

[Andrea5718]

I have heard you can buy sterile flies to turn loose that are supposed to breed with the wild flies. Does anyone have any experience with this method, or does it just put more flies in the air? Just asking.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I've heard of this with mosquitos, but not house-flies. Interesting.

 

[Tnfarmchicks]

I've tried so many different things over the years as bait in my fly traps. The traps themselves (like this) work great when they have a good bait / attractant inside.

... but I've yet to find the "perfect" bait

I've tried all kinds of things: raw fish, chicken-poop, vinegar + sugar combos, professional fly-bait concentrate, etc. etc. etc.

So far, none of them work GREAT. The only ones that seem to work "ok" on houseflies is the faw fish and chicken poop, but even those don't seem to "pull them in" like I'd expect or want.

Maybe my expectations are too high? I remember as a kid seeing big gallon-sized traps FULL of gazillions of flies, and I'm really wanting to duplicate that level of success.

So, WHAT DO YOU USE for attracting houseflies?



Here's my setup where I've been testing different attractants. In this case it's raw salmon on the left (with a few flies), and a "professional fly bait liquid" on the right (zero so far... and it smells TERRIBLE).

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I use raw hamburger. Placed in the trap and hot water added to fill up to about one-fourth level. Works great.

 

[cmom]

I use sticky fly rolls. They work well for me.

 

[Acre4Me]

Not bait, but I’ve heard about “fly predators” sold to get rid of flies. You get a few shipments a season, follow directions for placement.. the predator eggs hatch and kill the eggs/maggots. No babies-no flies. There are several companies that sell this type of product, and the predators area type of tiny wasp(s) that does not sting, and that you really don’t even see.

fly strips work pretty well for us, like @cmom uses.

liquid bait: I have also heard of the Dr Pepper bait.

 

[All Ball]

I use the Victor Fly Magnet trap for house flies (outdoors, of course). We set it up several weeks ago and it caught hundreds of flies. The thing was just crawling with flies, and they were all crushing each other in there. I think some of them even started breeding eventually, as I saw a few small yellow worms squirming around. We threw them all out a couple days ago and just filled the trap up with water (it still smells nasty so it will probably keep working). It is great for normal house flies but not so great for lesser house flies (the kind that fly endlessly around in circles and never seem to land - they lay eggs in chicken poop).
EDIT: just realized this trap is the one you linked above.

FYI I find that the lesser flies eventually get attracted when I leave the piles of dead flies and maggots in there. They must like the late stage brine... . Early on I mainly catch blowflies.