It’s summer, and I know flies are part of summer, but we recently got chickens and there are rather more flies than usual in our garden. No matter how much I spray the poo away they are attracted by the most recent deposits from my girls. There were more in the house too.
First I got a fly executioner tennis racket thing and went all Samuel L. Jackson on their ass, zapping them with a loud satisfying cracking sound, but although satisfying it wasn’t making any difference. So I bought two fly traps and set them in the garden with the bait stuff in. Like two jars of attractant, where the flies can get in and not out, then slowly drown in the liquid.
My 9yo is really unhappy about this, and his dad is backing him up! I know it is great that our kids have empathy and compassion, and I’d like to think I have played a big part in that, but they’re flies, goddammit! I don’t like them buzzing around the house and I also don’t want to cause a fly problem for the neighbours either. But I am being made to feel like Cruella de Vil over this. I offered to wrap paper round the jars so he couldn’t see them drowning but apparently he would “still know.”
Am I being unreasonable here? The jars are working nicely and there are markedly fewer flies around, but I can’t deny it is a shitty death for the little buggers...
PS I have checked and the attractant won’t attract bees. I love bees. I save bees with sugar water. I plant bee-friendly plants. No bees will be harmed in the course of this fly trap experiment. I would not use anything that kills bees.