Flytraps may be used to advantage in decreasing the number of flies.
Their use has been advocated not only because of the immediate results,
but because of the chances that the flies may be caught before they lay
eggs, and the number of future generations will be reduced greatly.
Many types of flytraps are on the market. As a rule the larger ones are
the more effective. Anyone with a few tools can construct flytraps for a
small part of the price of the ready-made ones. A trap (fig. 8) which is
very effective in catching flies and is easily made, durable, and cheap,
may be made of four barrel hoops, four laths, a few strips of boxing,
and 8 1/2 lineal feet of screening, 24 inches wide. (For greater details
see Farmers' Bulletin 734.)
The effectiveness of the traps will depend on the selection of baits. A
good bait for catching house flies is 1 part of blackstrap molasses to 3
parts of water, after the mixture has been allowed to ferment for a day
or two. Overripe or fermenting bananas crushed and placed in the bait
pans give good results, especially with milk added to them. A mixture of
equal parts brown sugar and curd of sour milk, thoroughly moistened,
gives good results after it has been allowed to stand for three or four
days.