A fly-killing system is used for pest management of flying insects, similar to houseflies, Zap Zone Defender wasps, moths, gnats, and mosquitoes. 10 cm (four in) throughout, hooked up to a handle about 30 to 60 cm (1 to 2 ft) lengthy manufactured from a lightweight material resembling wire, wood, plastic, Zap Zone Defender or metal. The venting or perforations minimize the disruption of air currents, which are detected by an insect and permit escape, and in addition reduces air resistance, making it simpler to hit a quick-shifting target. The flyswatter normally works by mechanically crushing the fly in opposition to a hard floor, after the consumer has waited for the fly to land someplace. However, customers can also injure or stun an airborne patio insect zapper mid-flight by whipping the swatter by way of the air at an excessive speed. The abeyance of insects by use of brief horsetail staffs and fans is an ancient practice, courting again to the Egyptian pharaohs.

The earliest flyswatters have been in truth nothing greater than some kind of placing floor connected to the tip of a long stick. An early patent on a industrial flyswatter was issued in 1900 to Robert R. Montgomery who known as it a fly-killer. Montgomery offered his patent to John L. Bennett, a wealthy inventor and industrialist who made further enhancements on the design. The origin of the title "flyswatter" comes from Dr. Samuel Crumbine, a member of the Kansas board of health, ZapZone who wished to lift public awareness of the well being issues brought on by flies. He was inspired by a chant at a neighborhood Topeka softball game: "swat the ball". In a well being bulletin published quickly afterwards, he exhorted Kansans to "swat the fly". In response, a schoolteacher named Frank H. Rose created the "fly bat", a gadget 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, patio insect zapper makes use of a spring-loaded plastic projectile to mechanically "swat" flies.

Mounted on the projectile is a perforated circular disk, which, in line with promoting copy, "won't splat the fly". Several similar merchandise are sold, mostly 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 traditional flyswatter, such a design can solely be used on an insect in mid-air. A fly bottle or patio insect zapper glass flytrap is a passive trap for flying insects. Within the Far East, it's a big bottle of clear glass with a black metallic high with a gap within the center. An odorous bait, similar to pieces of meat, is placed in the underside of the bottle. Flies enter the bottle searching for food and patio insect zapper are then unable to flee because their phototaxis behavior leads them anywhere within the bottle except to the darker top where the entry gap 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) broad 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 some sugar is sprinkled on the plate to attract flies, who ultimately fly up into the bottle. The trough is stuffed with beer or vinegar, into which the flies fall and drown. Previously, the trough was typically full of a dangerous mixture of milk, water, and arsenic or mercury chloride. Variants of those bottles are the agricultural fly traps used to combat the Mediterranean fruit fly and the olive fly, which have been in use because the 1930s. They're smaller, without ft, and the glass is thicker for tough outside utilization, patio insect zapper typically involving suspension in a tree or bush. Modern variations of this gadget are often made of plastic, and might be purchased in some hardware shops.