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Home made pooter

With the cooler autumn weather, i've been noticing a fair number of flies that have managed to find a way into the house.

They typically congregate on the ceiling, which in our case is 11 feet high at the peak and thus these are difficult to capture.

So i came up with this easily made pooter to capture them.

To make this device a few materials are necessary.


Masking tape

Plastic household/kitchen funnel

Nylon ankle stocking

Indoor vacuum/shop vacuum



IMG_1437-Materials-for-homemade-pooter-Oct-14-2012.jpg


I had the nylon stocking laying around because i use them to hold charcoal for my aquarium filter box, but a regular pair of ladies nylon stockings can be cut back to also accomodate this project.

The stocking is taped onto the funnel.

IMG_1441-Homemade-Pooter-Oct-14-2012.jpg


Make sure that the stocking is secure with a good tug of your hand to ensure it won't be separated from the funnel and sucked into the vacuum bag.

The stocking is then inserted into the vacuum's wand.

IMG_1443-Homemade-Pooter-Oct-14-2012.jpg


Turn the vacuum on and this pooter will stay in place even if held upside down.

IMG_1452-Homemade-Pooter-Oct-14-2012.jpg


This worked well for capturing the flies on the ceiling and i could tell when they were inhaled into the pooter because of a distinctive audible 'Pop'.

The smallest opening of this pooter is 9mm wide, but other diameters will work as well.

Once the flies are caught, the stocking can be removed and the flies can either be removed by hand and fed to plants or released outside.

Alternatively, the stocking can be placed in a sealed glass jar in the fridge to slow the insects down to live feed later to VFTs or the jar can be placed in the freezer for a more permanent slowdown, and these frozen insects can be fed into pitchers or onto sticky CPs.

A shop vac on a long extension cord can be used outdoors with this pooter to capture even more prey for your CPs.

Happy hunting and bon appetit for your plants. :)


dvg
 
how can you have a fly problem when you grow carnivorous plants?:crazy:


lol, that is a pretty good idea, but what would make it even better is if you decorated it to look like a bladderwort trap!:-O
 
When I started reading I pictured a traditional mouth-operated pooter. Then I read that you were having a fly problem, and I had a yucky mental image of the bug filter failing. :oops:

I'm glad that it's vacuum-operated.
 
prob cuz carnivorous plants dont just catch flies, they attract them as well :p
 
When I started reading I pictured a traditional mouth-operated pooter. Then I read that you were having a fly problem, and I had a yucky mental image of the bug filter failing. :oops:

I'm glad that it's vacuum-operated.

Haha, yeah using a traditional mouth-operated pooter to suck up flies would probably be a most unsavory task.

Out here in farm country with cattle, horses and dogs close to the house, there is no shortage of flies, but with the colder weather settling in, even those flies days are numbered now.


dvg
 
THIS... I HAVE to try... :-O
 
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