06/21/06 Bad news for flies

Bad News for Flies One of the ugly aspects of summer is battling flies. I'm Jeff Keane. I'll be back in one minute to tell you about some new help. Summertime seems to be the time flies hold all their conventions. Favorite convention sites are porches, windows and garbage containers, but the number one choice around our place has to be the barn. Even if the barn is clean those little pests seem to prefer it over all other summer resorts. The problem is flies can never hold a quiet, orderly convention  it always turns into chaos and the riot squads have to be called in. The enforcement usually is in the form of sticky fly strips, baits, insecticide fly strips, sprays and high-tech electrical zappers. More and more it seems the flies just thumb their noses at these control effects and go right on with their rowdy party. Well, the Elanco company has developed what you might call a more highly trained swat team in the form of a new bait called Elector Bait. The bright yellow color attracts flies without the nasty odor of some baits. Flies are killed, not just stunned, through a delayed action so they die away from eating stations, which leaves the bait clean and inviting to other hungry flies. Elector Bait has shown no known insecticide resistance buildups. It looks like this new product could be to flies the equivalent of a hanging judge to bad outlaws in old western movies. I'm Jeff Keane. Capital Press 6/2/06