Home made pooter

[dvg]

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




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.



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.



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



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