kiloran wrote:A fly swat is effective and provides a satisfying thwack when a fly is dispatched, but it can be a long process, especially for those pesky ones that buzz around for ever without landing
Any recommendations, apart from wait for winter?
I swat them in mid air with a regular fly swat so it avoids smearing them on the walls or the windows. Also saves waiting for them to land.
The trick is to watch their flight for a few cycles around the room before making any attempt, so you can evaluate their flight without alerting them to your intentions, then time it when they're heading towards you and you've got a lot of clear space to swing the swat without breaking things - pay attention to where your light fittings are in the ceilings, etc when choosing your swing zone.
Be sure to use a fast swing so the fly doesn't have time to react, and also to effect the stun.
If you miss on the first swing, try again rapidly a couple of times... the first will have disoriented and alarmed the fly, so you've got a good chance of getting it the second or third times before it regains its composure again.
You've just got to watch carefully for where they fall after the whack (usually they'll bounce off a wall if you've hit them hard enough). It usually just stuns them - but that gives you about 10 seconds to find them and properly dispatch them before they wake up and fly off again.
That said I don't get many flies... I find regularly emptying the kitchen bin helps avoid them in the first place.
The above works for flies in the UK.
We stayed in a chalet in Switzerland a few years ago that had rather a lot of flies. These tended to sit on the wall in the evening, but were a little jumpy if you tried to swat them. The trick I found, was to get some tissue or loo roll in your fingers (held like you were going to pick something up in it), then advance on the fly very slowly while it's sitting on the wall ... watch carefully as you get very close.. you'll notice the legs tense up as it realises something might be getting close... if you see that, just pause for a few seconds to let the fly calm down, before advancing on it even slower... all the way up until you're about an inch away from it ... at that point you're then close enough to push the remaining distance quickly, and grab it with the loo roll without it having time to fly off.
Back in the UK, I've also found the flies in work's workshop tend to be quite docile. So much so that you can grab them in mid air with your hand. Albeit, they tend to fit into the gaps between your fingers, so as soon as you open your hand they tend to fly away again - the trick is to throw them at the floor as you open your hand, so that that stuns them. Grabbing them in mid air by hand does tend to impress colleagues. But obviously it requires a hand wash before then touching anything.
