Absolute magic.
I've lived in this apartment for eight years and for eight years, every summer I get fruit flies--because my upstairs neighbors, who have also lived here for eight years, are disgusting with their rotting garbage and it doesn't take long for their problem to become everyone's problem. A testament to the joys of apartment living. It takes me a full arsenal of UV light traps, fly stick traps, fly punch, homemade apple cider vinegar + soap traps, and sticky window sheets to get rid of them every year...and even then I've only got about an 85% success rate, and the only way to get rid of the rest is to wait for winter and the cold hands of a frosty death grasping them by their tiny little wings. This year I decided to try a different trap and happened to notice the Catchmaster sheets. As cheap as they are, I figured...no way these are any good, but the ratings were high and I was desperate as the problem started late this year, but made up for it by being especially bad. So I bought one roll to give it a try. Last night I popped a push pin in the wall of the room with the worst infestation, hung the trap up, followed the instructions to pull out a foot of it, then wandered off for a minute for a visit to the little boy's room. By the time I washed my hands and came back, the trap had claimed its first dozen victims. Normally it takes a few days for the flies to notice any of the traps I put out, no matter what kind. It's kind of a domino effect, as once one or two land and get trapped it seems to attract the others, like they're saying "Oh? What's friendo over there checking out?" only to realize too late that friendo is trapped, dying, or dead. It's a process, is what I'm saying. It's never immediate. It's never this fast. I was seriously impressed. Then I went to bed, curious what morning would bring. Morning brought an almost fly-free room, with the trap so completely covered with dead and dying insects I had to cut it off and pull out a fresh length of it. There are a few stubborn holdouts still buzzing around, but I'm hoping they give in to temptation soon. In the meantime I've ordered the three-pack to take care of the other rooms, and I'm looking forward to a blissfully fly-free summer for the first time in eight years. So the long and short of it is these are cheap, very easy to put out, effective, and unobtrusive. I also want to say the smell is mild, but two caveats: 1.) Even though it's mild, once it gets in your nose it sticks there and overrides everything else. I had a very, very strong-smelling lavender candle burning, one that normally overpowers the whole space, and I couldn't smell it anymore at all even though the smell of the sticky paper wasn't strong in my nostrils. 2.) My sense of smell has been broken since I recovered from COVID in 2021. Some things I can smell normally, some things I can't smell at all anymore, some things are stronger or milder than they should be, and sometimes it just completely glitches in and out. So take anything I say about the smell of *anything* with that caution in mind, because my reporting on it may or may not be accurate. I can tell you what it smells *like* accurately, though, and it's just a nice little dose of pure rot. Mild. But pure rot. But if that's what it takes to attract the little jerks, that's what it takes. I'm just happy with the end results, and willing to put up with the occasional whiff of death. Read more
