Fly Trap: Horse Fly & Other Biting Flies

Horse Flies, Deer Flies and other biting flies can ruin an otherwise pleasant summer day. Our Fly Trap video on YouTube (see below as well) has been getting a lot of attention recently, so I thought I would include an update here as well to give you some more information.

Several years ago we had a horse. In the year that we got the horse we had a huge amount of horse flies. Enough that you would sort of jog to the car, and still ran the risk of one flying into the car with you when you opened the door.

It was horrible.

We stopped using the pool, or playing outdoors at all. As such came the desperate request from my wife: “Do Something”.

Horse Pal: Biting Fly Trap

In my research I learned a few different things, but the best resource – and the product we ended up going with – can be found at BitingFlies.com.

First, I learned that bug zappers are horrible little terrors. The rate at which they kill “bad” insects is horribly low compared to the rate at which they kill “good” insects.

You end up doing a lot more damage than good when you use a bug zapper.

I mean, think about what you are typically trying to kill with a bug zapper… something that “bites” you, like horse flies or mosquitoes, right?

But if you want to kill mosquitoes you have to use a scent lure. That ought to clue you in to something… killing the mosquitoes is happenstance… they are attracted to the scent and IF, by a stroke of luck, they fly into the electrified wire, they die.

Neither Mosquitoes or Biting Flies (like Horse Flies and Deer Flies) are attracted to light! The HorsePal trap will not help you with Mosquitoes, but we can get rid of the other flies.

Get Rid of Flies

Well, the gentleman that developed the HorsePal Fly Trap took the time to observe these biting flies and came up with a way to get rid of them.

He observed that they were attracted to heat and movement, not light. So, that is what his product simulates. It consists of a large black ball, suspended on a pendulum, which sways in a breeze. The sun warms it up.

This mimics a slow moving animal in a field, like a grazing horse, or any other livestock.

Once the flies bite, they tend to fly up, away from the ground. As such, the ball sits just below an enclosure to trap the fly. The fly continues its upward journey until it finds itself inside of a jar at the top, where it remains stuck, thanks to the mesh funnel it had to fly through to get there.

There, the sun bakes them to death.

Does the Horse Pal Trap Work?

Our experience is a resounding YES. Within the first hour we had a few dozen horse flies captured. Now, a few years later, we capture about 2 dozen over an entire summer. We own our yard again!

For the record: We do not earn any commission or affiliate payment from bitingfiles.com, HorsePal, or anything. It is just that good of a product that we want to share it with you.

Yes, it costs a lot of money and yes, you could make one yourself. However, we are very happy with ours and it has survived hurricanes and thunderstorms for years.

To see our video about the Horse Pal Fly Trap, click this sentence, or watch below: