Well it got above 35 degrees here today and I saw my first fly. I’m planning to get fly predators for the first time this year. They recommend to also use various fly traps. I tried one sticky trap 2 years ago. I took it down when I found a bunch of feathers on it, no doubt the poor bird was attracted by the captured bugs. I don’t want any tragedies, what wisdom do you all have?
The cheapie fly tapes are probably to small to trap a bird.
You could construct some tubes of hard cloth wire, small welded square openings in various sizes of 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Wire comes in various widths, 2 and 3ft. This is available at farm stores, some hardware stores. The farm store should have fasteners. Lots of folks use this wire to build rabbit cages. You could also use light wire to hold the edges together to make the tube.
You could run your fly tape down the center of the tube, cover tube ends, and have a great bird-proof fly catcher. Flies can easily go in and out the wire holes but no birds can possibly be caught on the sticky paper. Make tube ends of flat pieces of cardboard, sheet metal, just make them easy to get in to change the paper as needed. Hang the tube with a wire handle.
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I’ve had these in my barn for years with no bird troubles and I have lots of swallows and other small birds.
The tapes that you buy and unroll, usually an inch or so wide and orange, absolutely will cause bird problems. We had an OWL brought into our wild life rescue that was completely bound up in one.
Thank you all, I’m ordering the Amazon sticky tape. Will let you know how it goes!
