A fly-killing device is used for pest control of flying insects, comparable to houseflies, Zap Zone Defender wasps, moths, gnats, and mosquitoes. 10 cm (4 in) across, connected to a handle about 30 to 60 cm (1 to 2 ft) long manufactured from a lightweight material such as wire, wood, plastic, or metal. The venting or perforations reduce the disruption of air currents, that are detected by an insect and permit escape, and in addition reduces air resistance, making it simpler to hit a fast-moving target. The flyswatter normally works by mechanically crushing the fly against a tough floor, after the consumer has waited for the fly to land someplace. However, customers may also injure or stun an airborne insect mid-flight by whipping the swatter via the air at an excessive pace. The abeyance of insects by use of brief horsetail staffs and fans is an ancient follow, dating back to the Egyptian pharaohs.

The earliest flyswatters had been in fact nothing more than some type of hanging surface connected to the end of a long stick. An early patent on a commercial flyswatter was issued in 1900 to Robert R. Montgomery who called it a fly-killer. Montgomery bought his patent to John L. Bennett, a wealthy inventor and industrialist who made additional improvements on the design. The origin of the name "flyswatter" comes from Dr. Samuel Crumbine, a member of the Kansas board of well being, who wanted to lift public consciousness of the well being points caused by flies. He was impressed by a chant at a neighborhood Topeka softball sport: "swat the ball". In a health bulletin revealed 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 hooked up to a chunk of display, which Crumbine named "the flyswatter". The fly gun (or flygun), a derivative of the flyswatter, uses a spring-loaded plastic projectile to mechanically "swat" flies.

Mounted on the projectile is a perforated circular disk, which, based on advertising copy, "won't splat the fly". Several comparable merchandise are bought, principally as toys or novelty gadgets, although 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 distinction to the traditional flyswatter, such a design can only be used on an insect zapper in mid-air. A fly bottle or glass flytrap is a passive lure for flying insects. In the Far East, it is a large bottle of clear glass with a black steel top with a hole in the center. An odorous bait, similar to pieces of meat, is positioned in the underside of the bottle. Flies enter the bottle seeking meals and are then unable to flee as a result of their phototaxis conduct leads them wherever within the bottle besides to the darker high the place the entry hole is.

A European fly bottle is extra conical, with small toes that increase it to 1.25 cm (0.5 in), with a trough a couple of 2.5 cm (1 in) huge and deep that runs contained in the bottle all around the central opening at the underside of the container. In use, the bottle is stood on a plate and a few sugar is sprinkled on the plate to draw flies, who eventually fly up into the bottle. The trough is crammed with beer or Zap Zone Defender vinegar, into which the flies fall and drown. Up to now, the trough was generally crammed with a dangerous mixture of milk, water, and arsenic or mercury chloride. Variants of those bottles are the agricultural fly traps used to fight the Mediterranean fruit fly and the olive fly, which have been in use since the thirties. They're smaller, with out toes, and the glass is thicker for rough out of doors usage, often involving suspension in a tree or insect zapper bush. Modern variations of this system are sometimes made from plastic, and might be purchased in some hardware stores.