The Best Way To Kill A Fly

I just heard a story on NPR about a study some scientists did on how to kill a fly, how you're supposed to swat a few inches a head of the direction that they are likely to head and I thought, bull, I know how to kill flies--I just killed about twenty of them over the last two days.

The screen door was busted but it's hot, so I cracked the sliding door. My husband came home and went into the kitchen and said "Why are there so many flies in here?" I thought maybe there would be three or four, but I swear there were twenty. "Get me some toilet paper," I said, as I closed the door.

I don't know where I read or heard about this technique but it really works. If approached from one direction, flies will dart off in the other. If you approach them from either side at once, slowly and at an even pace on both sides, their brain is so simple it will short circuit and they freeze. You can catch them between your two hands, but I prefer to use two halves to a napkin to keep my hands clean.

I got to practice this over the last two days, with 90 percent success on the first try. My husband tried shooing them from the kitchen to the garage, and this eliminated half on Wednesday. I killed about eight of the remaining ones this way. However, he forgot to close the door on Thursday when he got his laundry so I arrived home to find at least 15 more. I killed about seven, and shooed most of them out the window.

Try this, you will be surprised.