Fly killer machines are more popular than ever these days. They used to be seen at the butcher's shop or in a the fishmongers. Nowadays they can be seen in restaurants, bars, offices and even in the home. Fly killer machines certainly take the hard work out of maintaining a fly-free zone. The new easy-on-the-eye machines are very popular in restaurants and in the home, especially those that look like wall lamps. If you are purchasing a new fly killer machine or already own one, this article will give you some tips on how to get the best performance from it. Siting
Flies tend to fly quite low to the ground as this is often where the food is. In their case, food may be animal droppings, for example. The home or work place differs from the natural world in that open food tends to be kept on work tops or tables. Flies are very opportunistic and will adapt straightaway. Although they might start flying low, they will soon dart upwards in their quest to find food. Ideally, the best place to site a fly killer machine is at the same level as the food source that they are so keen to sample. This is usually not possible for one or two reasons. Firstly, fly killers should not be directly above or very near to open food. Secondly, those fly killer machines with an electric killing grid ("zappers") have a powerful electric current. It is obviously unacceptable to have a zapper machine in a place where children (or anyone else for that matter) could reach it. Therefore, the most practical and safe place to site a fly killer machine is to one side of the potential food source and high enough so that it would be impossible for a child to reach it and no adult could accidentally reach it (in other words they would need to positively reach and stretch in order to touch it). That being said, it is important that you can gain easy access to the machine when it needs servicing (such as emptying dead flies from it). Step ladders are ideal for this. The other important factor when siting a fly killer machine is to ensure that it cannot be seen directly from an outside opening. You may actually make the problem worse as your machine beckons every passing fly into your establishment. The most popular place to site a fly killer machine is above the entry door. This satisfies all of the above requirements: i) by definition, it is not directly above or near food, as it is above the doorway; (ii) it is high enough so that it cannot be reached by children; (iii) it cannot be directly be seen from the outside. The only thing you need to ensure is that it cannot be seen through another outside opening, such as a window. Competing Light
Fly killer machines are extremely effective as their uv lamps emit a powerful ultra violet light that flies find irresistible. This is the case for most rooms. However, where a room has many windows or very large windows the fly killer machine will be competing with natural sunlight on cloudless days. This can occur, for example, in conservatories, or in laboratories where natural light is required. In these situations, a fly larger fly killer machine with more powerful ultra violet lamps than normal for the room size would be required. In addition it would be advisable to add fly traps to the arsenal. Fly traps do not use ultra violet light to attract flies. Instead they contain an attractant tablet which contains a mixture of protein (food for flies) and a pheromone (a sex lure). It is best to add a drop of water to the tablet when it first used in order to trigger the release of the odour that will attract the flies. UV Bulbs
The ultra violet output of fly killer machine lamps will degrade significantly over time. As a general rule, they should be replaced after 1 year. Although the light output that is visible to humans is not affected, an out of date uv lamp will not be very good at attracting flies. If you follow these guidelines, your fly killer machine will perform well, leaving you free to get on with a fly-free life. |
