There’s nothing like summertime, but in the upper midwest and elsewhere in the country, August is the month of the fly. An enjoyable Labor Day Cookout can turn into a nightmare of flies hovering around grill areas, food on picinic tables and doorways leading into homes. In the late afternoon and early evenings we have seen literally thousands of flies on the side of our house, waiting for a hot dog to wander by. When it cools down at night, they wait eagerly by the screen door for someone to enter or exit at which time dozens buzz into the warm house to pick over kitchen leftovers and be yet another summer health hazard. Bug sprays and fly swatters can never get rid of all the flies and for someone with flyphobia (actaullly it’s called entomophobia) it can be maddening to try. However, there is hope. Rather than using chemicals and aggression to get rid of flies, I found a few tricks that mess with their little fly brains, and they seem to work.

The CD trick: This one really seems to work. Find an old CD-ROM disk that has the rainbow pattern on BOTH sides. CD’s that have printing on one side are not as effective. Drill a small hole (1/8″) about 1/2″ to 3/4″ from the edge of the disk. Be sure to wear safety glasses when drilling because they can shatter. Then, get about 2 feet of monofilament fishing line and place it through the hole and tie the two ends together. Hang this fly ornament right outside your door and for some reason it “seems to” keep the flies away. The theory is that the rainbow pattern mimics a fly eye and the movement confuses the flies brain into thinkng it’s a BIG fly, and little flies prefer to avoid big flies or predatory insects, like mud daubers, which eat flies for breakfast. If nothing else, the sun shining on the disc will keep them flying and make your dog bark. The effectiveness also varies from morning to evening with morning working better. Combine this with other hair brained methods for better effectiveness.

In Part II we will examine some other wacky methods for controlling those irritating flies.