Fly Predator Update

After smashing and mashing and crushing, as well as brushing and sweeping, most of the 5000 little fly predators are gone from this now "fly free" zone. Spalding, the vendor for Fly Predators suggested all the little creatures in the house could be vacuumed up and discarded, which has worked well so far. Since the fly predators live on manure, (as in horse manure) and as a general rule we don't have any laying around inside our home, the little fellas will die off within 24-48 hours. While yesterday was creepy, today is much better. Read about how they got away here.

Spalding Fly Predators are a terrific product created to sprinkle around outside animal manure pens, piles, and/or droppings to eliminate flys. It really works well, when used as intended and outside there are no flys, thanks to this product. To read more about the biology behind product that is available for horses, cows and dogs, click here. Spalding is sending us a free packet of the little guys to make up for the ones that got away. Thank you Spalding.
Photo attribution: somewhatfortyplus

Spalding Fly Predators

No one wants bugs or flys in their house, and this Chicagoland home won't have any for quite a while, thanks to Spalding Fly Predators, an ultimate method of fly control. This morning, hundreds of tiny ant like creatures were crawling all over the white shirts on their way to the laundry service. Creeped out, I moved all the shirts, papers, etc. outside and then discovered the problem. A package of Fly Predators had apparently opened just enough for the tiny, completely biteless and stingless animals to emerge. While the advertising claims They never become a pest themselves. After they've emerged, their single minded pursuit is to reproduce by finding pest fly pupa. Because of their small size and the fact they live their entire life cycle on or near manure (where the pest fly pupae are typically found), Fly Predators go virtually unnoticed. Unless they are on the walls and/or ceiling where they are most definitely noticed.

What to do? What anyone would do, get out the bug spray and spray away. I did. They died. They dropped from the walls and ceiling, and a soapy paper towel wiped them away. Just for one's mental health, a second and then third soapy paper towel wiped the same surfaces. Why have fly predators? I have horses, and horses eat and then defecate, leaving mounds of manure which is then collected and placed, thankfully by our barn hand, into a manure pile. Each season the pile is loaded onto a huge truck and carted away to manure land, as far as I know. Manure creates flys and Spalding Fly Predators are opened and sprinkled all around the manure to stop any fly development. They work wonders outside, and I have to admit, there were no flies in the house last night.

Here's the real information about the product: There's no downside as the Fly Predators do not bother either people or animals. Equally important you stop flies before they have a chance to reproduce. A 4% survival rate means you've got around 15 new flies coming for every one you see today as each female fly can lay up to 900 eggs. That's why controlling flies by just attacking the adults with sprays, baits, traps, etc. is almost always a losing battle.

Spalding Fly Predators do work and every month a small envelope of them arrive in the larvae stage. Once they have emerged into the tiny ant like creature they become, it is time to put the entire package outside to do their work. The package is now out and doing what it is intended to do. All crawling things have been killed, and all surfaces have been wiped down, several times. I am almost over the creepy feeling I have and will be once I hit the shower, where I am going. Photo attribution: somewhatfortyplus