I have 2 outdoor cats. I always keep a bowl of food on the porch but lately the flys at their bowl have become out of control.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to control the flys without a harmful spray?
TIA

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Mary

I've never tried this, but it might work:

How does a plastic bag filled with water act as a fly repellent?

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My first thought was, "but wouldn't that plastic bag filled with water attract mosquitos?"

they say that orignal Listerine keeps mosquites away I wonder if it would work on flies

What about "fly paper". I remember my grandmother using these in her house many, many years ago.

Fly Glue Traps for Flys

That's a good question, OP. I have the same problem with our outdoor cat. We have problems with ants getting her food, too. PLUS we're having a horrible problem with blackbirds coming on the deck eating her food. And a lot of times she's laying there asleep right by her food and I look out and there's three or four birds eating out of her bowl and she doesn't even pay any attention to them!

If I find out anything, OP, I'll let you know because I'd sure like to know, too.

I solved the ant problem by putting the cat food bowl in a pie pan and keep the pie pan full of water. Ants can't get past the water.

The birds crack me up. My dog does that, but it's the raccoons that come to eat his food while he's sleeping.

I had forgotten about good 'ol fly paper - that's those strips that hang down right? I think I'll try that.

I have a fix for mosquitoes - you put out a bowl of apple cider vinegar with one drop of dishwashing liquid. You'll be surprised how many mosquitoes you get in just one day.

I'd never heard about the water in a baggie - I googled it and found that the light reflecting is supposed to scare the flys away. I'll try that too.

Thanks All!

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Mary

Good idea about the putting her bowl in a pan of water. So your dog is about as 'active' as my cat! You'd think a raccoon would wake up a dog! (And that a cat would go after those birds!) That's so funny. BTW, just be careful about the fly paper strips. My daughter-in-law went to visit her grandparents who live in an old farmhouse and they had one of those flypaper strips in the bathroom and she got her hair stuck on it! It wouldn't come out. They tried everything and she ended up having to cut her hair!! So be VERY careful with those things!

I looked it up online last year and tried the plastic bag full of water thing but it did not work. We found we had "drain flies " so keepin g the kitchen sink drain covered at night solved the problem. I know it's gross yuck the things we put up with out in the country.

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w-d 40 releases fly paper

If it is wet food then the flys are blowflys, not much will keep them away..they are dormant at nite so that does help if you feed the cat in the evening or early morning. However wet food smells and within minutes of it being found by one of those flys it can be covered in maggot eggs..icky I know and they hatch fast too. Even feeding your cat wet food in a building will not keep them away. One choice is to change to dry food or only put out very small amounts your cat will eat at one time.
There are fly traps you can buy at feed stores and Wally world etc. But be warned the mixture that you have to put in there can gag you, and it has to be sit away from where anyone can smell it, i.e. not close to your neighbors back yard. Those things will draw Blowflys and Biting flys. I keep one close to the goat pen and keeps them away from her and the pool that way.
If you have any dogs etc. that are getting eat up by biting flys buy Bunco or Bronco fly spray, can't remember the exact name is out in the yard right now...you can spray it on dogs and other animals, I spray it on old sheets etc. that I hang around the pool fence and it keeps flys and naats away very well. You can buy this at any feed store, here we have it in our Wal-Mart, but being rural they sell feed etc. at ours.
Hope this helps.

lori and the zoo

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Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard

I wished we would have known that then!! Thanks. Hope we won't have to go thru that again!!