Deer Fly Traps

[willworkforwood]

Last year I was going to make one of these, but couldn't find any Tanglefoot before the season ended for these flying SOBs. On Monday, this year's first brood showed up looking for fresh meat (i.e. me). They're earlier this year than ever before. Maybe February next year? So I threw one of these things together in an hour or so, and headed outside to give it a try. The first one approached, making the noise that sounds like someone cutting a piece of pipe with hacksaw. I was instinctively doing the flinching thing, but told myself to just hang in there and give it a shot. All of a sudden, the buzz-saw noise turned into ...... NOTHING. Took off the hat to look, and the scoreboard said: Humans-1 Deerflies-0. Oh Happy Day :cheese: :cheese:. After a couple of hours the score was 10-0. If you want to terminate these little messengers from Hell, and don't care if people are laughing at you, get one of these things done (a different hat is recommended for the NY metro area). If you build it, they will come :lol:

 

[velvetfoot]

How did you attach the cup to the hat?

I've been totally covered up the last weeks with a head net for the black flies.
Really hot.

As an aside, the mosquitos are now coming out more and they go through the shirt.

 

[willworkforwood]

How did you attach the cup to the hat?
I've been totally covered up the last weeks with a head net for the black flies.
Really hot.
As an aside, the mosquitos are now coming out more and they go through the shirt.

Don't like bug spray, and so I also wear a net/helmet-shield + full clothing while cutting and hauling in the woods - sweat city. But I split out in the open, and the mosquitoes quit on hot days. But Deerflies keep on coming no matter what, and that's why this trap is such a happy thing. Now I will be able to split and stack wearing shorts, T shirt, and of course the hat-trap. This hat had a bunch of air holes on top, so I just put holes on the top edge of the cup and weaved it in place with some twine. A few safety pins would probably work just as well.

 

[Intheswamp]

Something else you can do is stick some poles in the ground around your work area and place some of the cups on them to "wiggle" in the wind....might have to dangle them by a string or something to get good movement or maybe center them on a finishing nail. Or maybe string several up on a line between two supports. That would give a little perimeter protection and the hat could be the last line of defense.

Ed

 

[velvetfoot]

Thanks. They've been getting a little worse here each year I think.
The black flies were really bad this year and there are still some around, so hopefully that doesn't translate into a bumper crop of deer flies.
It would've been interesting to see if it worked on the black flies.
I'm sure the tanglefoot will be messy, but what the heck

If they were on poles in the area, they could also be jiggled on passing, but I don't know if that'd be enough.
I'll have to re-read the article and find some tanglefoot!

 

[UmbrellaGirl]

I've trapped over 11,000 deer flies in the first 5 weeks of the 2012 deer fly season in Michigan using my version of the trolling deer fly trap developed by Dr. Mizell. My trap uses an umbrella, blue cups, and Tangle-Foot. Check out my blog for how to make and use this easy effective trap. I've also posted my trapping data there. Happy trapping! http://deerflytrapumbrella.blogspot.com/

BTW, you can purchase the Tangle-Foot Sticky Trap Coating from Amazon

 

[weatherguy]

Don't like bug spray, and so I also wear a net/helmet-shield + full clothing while cutting and hauling in the woods - sweat city. But I split out in the open, and the mosquitoes quit on hot days. But Deerflies keep on coming no matter what, and that's why this trap is such a happy thing. Now I will be able to split and stack wearing shorts, T shirt, and of course the hat-trap. This hat had a bunch of air holes on top, so I just put holes on the top edge of the cup and weaved it in place with some twine. A few safety pins would probably work just as well.

Where did you get the sticky stuff? Did you use tanglefoot?

 

[onetracker]

I've trapped over 11,000 deer flies in the first 5 weeks of the 2012 deer fly season in Michigan using my version of the trolling deer fly trap developed by Dr. Mizell. My trap uses an umbrella, blue cups, and Tangle-Foot. Check out my blog for how to make and use this easy effective trap. I've also posted my trapping data there. Happy trapping! http://deerflytrapumbrella.blogspot.com/

BTW, you can purchase the Tangle-Foot Sticky Trap Coating from Amazon

gotta love this solution! now if i didn't have to carry it around......

in my non-existent spare time i would love to make one of these just for the satisfaction of trapping those little pissants. i gotta feel for the animals tho....i sometimes see young deer that are driven out of their minds by them. the adults seem a little more accepting of their fate. makes me happy i have hands to swat and slap with and half-a-brain to create an umbrella with blue plastic cups stuck to it.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

How did you attach the cup to the hat?

I've been totally covered up the last weeks with a head net for the black flies.
Really hot.

As an aside, the mosquitos are now coming out more and they go through the shirt.

Think ThermaCell.