I saw your comment above about the bait (after responding earlier). Do keep us updated on how well it works, or doesn’t. I didn’t realize it was an option.
1 Like
Connecticut. There was a pond on the farm, out in the pasture. I don’t know the life cycle of those bomber flies, but I suspected they had been born of that pond.
2 Likes
I got Tangle Foot glopped on my beach ball I spray painted black. The paint really never dried so the sticky stuff is sliding down the ball but it still has good stick at the top. Yesterday afternoon I took the ball down to the arena and hung it on the shepherd’s hook where it was swinging in the breeze. This morning it had caught one stinkbug. No flies.
So this morning I moved it to another spot more in the sun but next to the arena where the pasture meets the trees. I also hung it lower. I just checked - I have one greenhead. We have had cooler nights the last two nights and hotter drier weather during the day but I still have many many flies out there. The horse came out of vacation and worked this AM and we did have gnats and a few flies but less than before. But then again it was cooler. Before I build something I need to know if a big dark ball attracts them.
No kidding - the original bags are nearly completely full, after only a few days of use. It is beyond disgusting + awesome at the same time. The horses are eating hay 30 feet away with barely a fly on them. My second order arrived and now I’m putting them down the chute and in the big field - as of yesterday afternoon they were also ramping up in killing. So, yay!!!
Some have wondered if I’m attracting flies by using them … but no one around me has horses so I’m kind of ground zero for flies anyhow. No matter … they are working great and based on the info on the bags, I’m estimated that they’ve killed about 100,000 so far (based on bag capacity and inches filled so far).
Can you give a link, or at least the name of the bags you are using, and the type of location you’ve put them in?
I just got two Fly Traps which are supposed to attract and kill horse and deer flies. So far – 3 days, and nothing. It could be that it’s been cold and the flies aren’t out. Or I’ve put them in the wrong location. Or they don’t work 
If anyone’s used them with success I’d love to hear about it.
Here’s the link to what I have:
The oozing ball. Note that the paint and Tanglefoot is sliding down to the bottom. I have about 5 or 6 greenheads on it, I do not see any dive bombers though. It has been really hot and dry so maybe some of them have died out.
If you do a search on Amazon for “Bug Ball” you will find starter kits with inflatable black balls, a needle to inflate them and some bug dope. Might be easier then painting?
1 Like
Well this one was $2.50 and I have other uses for the spray paint. I am starting cheap to see if my flies are attracted to a dark ball before I invest any more money in this project. So far the jury is out. But if it attracts the flies I will upgrade my black balls.
2 Likes
1 Like
I haven’t even hung my beach ball yet and already caught maybe two dozen greenheads in the first 36 hours my homemade trap was out. For those of you not catching any, you may need to experiment with location. I found a consistently good spot but if I move it around much I don’t catch any.
3 Likes
It makes me so happy that I know the trapped ones will not make any babies, and instead will die. Great work!
5 Likes
May I recount an anecdote for those who feel they’re getting no where trapping flies? We live in greenhead central. They’ll be out in about a week, and we will have to switch to night turnout, because no matter how bad the mosquitoes are, they don’t harass the horses like greenheads do. Years ago the state/ county mosquito control began putting traps out on the marsh. Local Boy Scout troops made plywood and screen traps for sale, and trapping began in earnest. When we bought our farm (right on the salt marsh) it came with 12 Boy Scout made traps which we put out every year.
Here’s the anecdote part. Next town over, about 1/2 mile away, there’s Ernie’s Garage. It’s staffed with the kind of crusty New Englander you might expect with an accent to match. I was waiting there for something one day, complaining about the greenheads when the duffer in the “office” told me to stop whining. They were no way as bad as they used to be. He pointed to the office window screen that had a few greenheads on it, trying to get in or out (unclear). He told me that before trapping started, that window would be black, completely covered with greenheads. That’s how much the population had decreased.
So keep trapping, please. BTW, the Rutgers University website has plans for the kind of greenhead trap we have and lots of information. And I agree that location is key.
2 Likes
That looks a lot more successful than mine. I am trying a third spot just now. Die baby die!
( Not that I am cruel or anything).
I am the happy owner of the Horsepal fly trap. I have to say, it’s my most favorite horse thing I’ve purchased. Definitely the most satisfying. I sometimes sit next to it with a cocktail, watching the little bastards get trapped.
I catch thousands of horse flies each season. Not quite as many deer flies, but some. And the big bombers. I LOVE it when I see them dead in that bottle! My bombers aren’t out yet, but last year I definitely had less and they seem to be reducing every year (now on year 4 of the introduction of the trap). Right now, I’d say that my regular horse fly population is less than last year, but it hasn’t been as hot and humid as normal yet, and I find them much more active in the humidity.
4 Likes
I got two of the smaller Fundis black ball traps and set them a week ago. Not one fly in either one! i have one at the edge of a run in shed and the other on a branch of a pecan tree near the feeder. I’m bummed.
I am just now seeing greenheads and bombers dead in the trap (yay!). The weather has also become more hatefully hot and humid so maybe that’s part of it.
It has been really weird here fly wise. They were HORRIBLE in early summer. I would take the horse out to work her and there were herds of them chasing her after a few minutes. Then we had about 6 weeks of 95-105 degree temperatures with no rain. Lots fewer flies. It just started to rain again and no flies when I work her - just a few gnats. My guess is the desert like conditions dried things out so much that the flies died off. I am waiting to see if they reappear after the rain we have had and more humid conditions… And no - the sticky oozing black ball is not catching much, but maybe they have all died.
