Starbar Fly Bait Station

Details

If you use a scatter fly bait, a station is not an accessory — it is the part that makes the bait acceptable to use around a farmyard. Scattered loose on the ground, fly bait is a granule coated in sugar attractant lying where a dog, a barn cat, a chicken or a curious calf can find it. In a station, the bait is contained, held off the wet ground where it would otherwise dissolve into a paste, and shielded from rain that would wash it away in a night. The practical benefits stack up quickly. Bait lasts longer because it stays dry. You use less of it because it is not being scattered into bedding and manure. You can put it where flies are — up on a wall, in a sunny corner of a shed, along a rafter line — instead of only where a horizontal surface happens to exist. And you can refill and reposition it rather than starting over. Move it when it stops working. Flies are creatures of habit and sunlight, and a station that was in the right place in June may be in shade by August. Somewhere warm, sunny, out of the wind and close to fly resting surfaces beats a tidy out-of-the-way spot every time. Read the label of whatever bait you put in it, because the actives used in fly baits vary and some are highly toxic to dogs, cats and birds. A station reduces that exposure; it does not eliminate it. Mount it where animals genuinely cannot reach or knock it down, keep it out of feed and water areas, and wash your hands after refilling.