Flies & EFK’s
In Flies, Pests in August, Pests in July, Pests in June, Pests in September, Pests in Summer
Flies & EFK’s:
Flies are not simple pests to deal with. For a start the control will depend on the type of flies. Many flies are not attracted to the Electronic Fly Killers or EFK’s. These machines are are favourite of the food & pest control industries. Food premises like them in many cases because they look good and are seen as a modern way to deal with flies. From the pest control industries point of view they provide a source of income from sales & servicing. Unfortunately the two main types of fly that have the potential to cause disease, the House Fly and the Lesser House Fly are not attracted to the uv lights in an EFK. Some will go in by accident but just in the same way they might go to a normal light. If situated in the wrong place theses machines may cause moths and flies to come into the food area from outside. They should not be situated near windows or open doors. There is now a move in the food industry to use the EFK’s with glue boards rather than an electric killing grid. The reason for this is that the electric killing grid will cause the flies to explode and there is a risk that parts of flies ma end up where they are not required!.With the glue boards the flies get stuck and no parts are lost. The disadvantage of these is that they are more labour intensive than the electric killing grid machines, they generally need servicing four times a year (glue pads replaced) instead of one a year.
In my opinion EFK’s should only be used after the area has been fitted with fly screens on the doors and windows.
I used to carry out a residual insecticide spray every three months to a chip shop in Tilehurst, Reading. They had this instead of EFK’s and it worked exceptionally well. I used Effect Microtech CS which is a slow release insecticide, ideal on walls and ceilings. The customer was exceptionally pleased with the result and had this treatment for many years until the site changed hands. They did say that towards the end of the 3 month period flies would start to appear so we removed a Spring spray so the Summer/Autumn season had a spray every two months.
To summarise, EFK’s have a place to in fly control, they look good but have a limited effect compared with other methods of control and prevention.
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