Fly catcher

On farms and smallholdings, particularly,  flys can be a bit of a problem during the summer, attracted as they are to livestock, manure, ripening fruit and no doubt many other delights. The dangers of fly strike in sheep I have recently encountered and its not nice.

NADIS (National Animal Disease Information Service), which I am signed up to, send out regular livestock disease email alerts and updates. The most recent one for fly strike is that the risk remains high at this time of the year but "whilst blowflies are very active in the recent hot weather, the risk of strike is lower than might be expected, particularly for shorn ewes because it is too dry for the maggots to survive. It is also too hot for the parasitic worm larvae on pasture that leads to scouring in lambs; scouring is one of the main factors that increase lamb susceptibility to blowfly strike. However, the risk will increase quickly once the dry weather breaks and so high levels of vigilance will be required". The final sentence is to be noted.

We came across some fly traps which we thought we would give a try. I'm not sure that there is any evidence that they are implicated in reductions in the incidence of fly strike. Also, are the flys trapped 'local' to our holding or have they been lured in from further afield? Moreover, its not clear how many of the trapped flies are blue bottles or green bottles, the culprits when it comes to fly strike. Whatever the case the traps are proving very effective at catching flys.

This has been up for just one week. The black
band of captured flies is about 3" thick. The
instructions state it can stay in place for 3 months
before needing to be replaced. I'll empty it in the
compost when the time comes.