How a Farmer Won a War Against Flies

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Gold Shaw Farm
PO Box 225
Peacham, VT 05862

About Gold Shaw Farm: Gold Shaw Farm is more of a farm-in-progress than an honest-to-goodness farm. We dream that someday we can transform our 150+ acre parcel of land into a regenerative and productive homestead and farm.

[seektruth-]

I have no cattle, don't live on a farm, don't even struggle with flies but I still watched your whole video and feel the need for fly paper in my life.

[kennyholmes]

A tip for your bait traps: Use vinegar, not soda. Flies are more attracted to smells more indicative of decay than they are smells indicative of sweets. That's why all the traps you said smelled bad smelled the way that they did. Also, Mythbusters tested it, and found that the old adage of "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" is not just false, but completely backwards.

[romans]

I moved onto a farm in the 1980s with flies: it was miserable; just miserable. In our 2nd or 3rd year, mom started keeping chickens free range in the yard; after a few months, we noticed almost no flies at all anymore; turns out the chickens were eating the fly larvae and breaking the fly cycle

[raute]

Thumbs up for not using heavy chemicals and worrying about your cows wellbeing. I'm usually close to loosing my mind with only one or two flies around me, can't imagine my whole face being covered constantly.

[MrMooCow]

The sudden drop in flies is related to the lifespan/lifecycle. Black flies live 15 days or so. So if you've been catching flies for 2 weeks, it probably reduced the number of eggs being laid since you were catching the adults. That sudden drop in flies might have actually been that current generation of flies dying of old age, and too few larvae to replenish the population.

[gavinh]

I used to work in a fly lab, and we would set up traps with apple cider vinegar (flies are extremely attracted to fermenting drinks/foods) and a couple drops of dawn dish soap. The soap acts to break the surface tension so the flies immediately drown. I do this every time I get a fruit fly outbreak and it resolves within a couple days. Hope this works out for you!

[e.m.]

Humanitarian. Most farmers (particularly w/large #'s of animals) just never give flies a thought & think "oh well, that's just part of raising cows." Kudos to you...though your cows can't talk, I'm sure they are a lot happier 😊.

[SquirrellyDan]

Just saw this. My aunt has a cattle farm of about 1800 acres in southern Oklahoma. She uses these but almost industrial level. Has large canvas sheets covers them in rosin and nails the sheets to a plywood base. Once it’s full she takes the sheet off and puts it in her garage where she uses her old chicken heat lamps and scraps it off. New rosin is applied. Cycle over and over.

[guy]

It makes sense that it took you 1-2 weeks to get rid of most of the flies. I imagine it was the time for all the larvae to mature and cycle through, while consistent enough to not give them enough time to reproduce.

[sailbatten]

I would totally expect exactly what you saw with the sudden decrease. You started killing flies before they were laying eggs. That interrupted the whole cycle, but with the acceleration of killing flies AND not having more eggs to replenish them. At first you won't notice it, because the existing eggs were still hatching when you started.

[Junkinsally]

Breaking the fly cycle is the key. Once the adults are gone, be on the look out for another outbreak in about 8-10 days. Every cycle should get less and less. Also rainy weather makes flys worse. They are more likely to gather in one place where food is available when it rains. Chickens need to be moved directly behind the cattle to help. Flys lay eggs in the fresh cow pies. What you want is the chickens to pick those pies at the first signs of larva.

[nathanschmidt]

Man who pursues naturalism and healthy life building a farm. Real heroes in this world.

[pamallen]

I admit I don't know you, but as a great grandma, I just want to say how proud I am of you for not only living your dream, but spending the time and money to make it an awesome success. I am now a subscriber and will lending what support I can. God bless you and all your endeavors.

[theyearwas]

I knew a guy about 15-20 years ago that was dealing with so many mosquitoes on his property, that he wrapped his entire golf cart almost completely and fly paper or something of the sort that was really sticky, and he drove around the field outside of his house for like 3 hours. There wasn't a spot of that tape that wasn't covered in mosquitoes. He did this about every night for a week. I swear that mosquito population dipped down to about a quarter of what it was

[trplankowner]

When you were talking about not wanting to catch honey bees, the insect you showed on that gold stick sticky trap was a yellow jacket wasp, not a honey bee. Honey bees are usually only attracted to high levels of sugar, they'll even ignore most soft drinks. Hopefully your honey bees will remain safe!

[MrJRW]

It’s interesting to learn what some farmers are doing to combat flies, without resorting to “fly powder” or other chemicals. I am surprised just how effective the fly paper was for you. Thanks for sharing!

[duvaintheodd]

Damn. My Grandpa's farm had about 200 cows and 70 horses. You can just imagine the amount of flies. I once used the roll when cows were returning from grazing back into the shed and in only about 20 minutes the fly paper was completely and utterly full, not a single spot left untouched. At that point I realized it's impossible but you went ahead and fought it and won! Amazing job.

[narial]

I love how conscious you are about every decision. Not just for you or your cows, but the environment as a whole!

[djdrocco]

I'm not a farming enthusiast or anything, just here to see flies die en masse. But man you're a delight. The world needs a lot more good dudes with wholesome dreams like this.

[RandomPotatas]

>You died
>Gets reincarnated as a fly
>Spawned in this man's farm