A fly-killing machine is used for pest management of flying insects, resembling houseflies, wasps, moths, gnats, patio insect zapper and mosquitoes. 10 cm (four in) across, attached to a handle about 30 to 60 cm (1 to 2 ft) lengthy made of a lightweight materials akin to wire, wooden, plastic, or metal. The venting or perforations decrease the disruption of air currents, that are detected by an patio insect zapper and permit escape, and in addition reduces air resistance, making it easier to hit a quick-moving goal. The flyswatter normally works by mechanically crushing the fly towards a hard floor, after the consumer has waited for the fly to land someplace. However, users may also injure or stun an airborne insect mid-flight by whipping the swatter by means of the air at an extreme speed. The abeyance of insects by use of brief horsetail staffs and followers is an historical practice, courting again to the Egyptian pharaohs.

The earliest flyswatters had been in truth nothing greater than some form of putting floor hooked up to the end of a protracted stick. An early patent on a business flyswatter was issued in 1900 to Robert R. Montgomery who referred to as it a fly-killer. Montgomery sold his patent to John L. Bennett, a rich inventor and industrialist who made additional enhancements on the design. The origin of the identify "flyswatter" comes from Dr. Samuel Crumbine, a member of the Kansas board of well being, who needed to boost public consciousness of the health issues attributable to flies. He was impressed by a chant at a local Topeka softball recreation: "swat the ball". In a health bulletin printed quickly afterwards, he exhorted Kansans to "swat the fly". In response, a schoolteacher named Frank H. Rose created the "fly bat", a device consisting of a yardstick attached to a piece of display, which Crumbine named "the flyswatter". The fly gun (or flygun), a derivative of the flyswatter, makes use of a spring-loaded plastic projectile to mechanically "swat" flies.

Mounted on the projectile is a perforated circular disk, which, according to promoting copy, "will not splat the fly". Several similar merchandise are offered, largely as toys or novelty gadgets, though some maintain their use as traditional fly swatters. Another gun-like design consists of a pair of mesh sheets spring loaded to "clap" together when a trigger is pulled, squashing the fly between them. In contrast to the standard flyswatter, such a design can only be used on an insect in mid-air. A fly bottle or glass flytrap is a passive entice for flying insects. Within the Far East, it is a big bottle of clear glass with a black metal prime with a hole in the center. An odorous bait, similar to items of meat, is placed in the bottom of the bottle. Flies enter the bottle searching for food and are then unable to escape because their phototaxis habits leads them anywhere within the bottle except to the darker prime the place the entry hole is.

A European fly bottle is extra conical, with small toes that raise it to 1.25 cm (0.5 in), with a trough a few 2.5 cm (1 in) large and deep that runs contained in the bottle all around the central opening at the bottom of the container. In use, the bottle is stood on a plate and a few sugar is sprinkled on the plate to attract flies, who finally fly up into the bottle. The trough is stuffed with beer or vinegar, into which the flies fall and drown. In the past, the trough was typically filled with a dangerous mixture of milk, water, and arsenic or mercury chloride. Variants of these bottles are the agricultural fly traps used to fight the Mediterranean fruit fly and the olive fly, which have been in use for the reason that nineteen thirties. They are smaller, with out ft, and the glass is thicker for tough out of doors usage, often involving suspension in a tree or bush. Modern variations of this machine are sometimes manufactured from plastic, and can be bought in some hardware stores.