How to: Catch a Fly in the House

This post is for all you fly haters out there, who loathe sharing house space with a despicable, noisy fly. A functional fly swatter will be helpful, but not essential to your success in removing the fly. If your fly swatter no longer functions due to swatting too many flies, use the alternative night-light method detailed below.

I'm sure it's happened to all of us. You are just getting into bed after a long, tiring day. You're exhausted and looking forward to a restful sleep. Then you hear it -- bzzz as a big black fly cruises  around the room. The moment you fetch the fly swatter, it disappears; but you know it's probably resting behind the night stand, waiting for lights out to resume its sleep-disturbing explorations. What to do?

Or perhaps you have invited your fastidious relatives over for a meal (probably a bad idea to start with) and you're putting the finishing touches on the meal when a fly swoops in from nowhere and starts checking out the pickles. You could swat it easily -- but it never lands except on the food.

Here's what you do. To catch the bedroom fly, turn off your bedroom light and turn on a light right outside your room. Within seconds, the fly will relocate to the brighter room. Continue to lure it using light until you trap it in a small room where it is easy to swat (the bathroom is great). At this point, swat it. If you do not have a fly swatter, plug in a bright nightlight and turn off the bathroom light. The fly will come to the light where it can be easily caught.

This same method may be used to catch the kitchen fly. If it is daytime, first pull the shades to make the room dark, then proceed. You need never eat or sleep with a fly again!