A fly-killing device is used for pest management of flying insects, comparable to houseflies, wasps, moths, gnats, and mosquitoes. 10 cm (four in) throughout, attached to a handle about 30 to 60 cm (1 to 2 ft) long made from a lightweight materials similar to wire, wooden, plastic, or metal. The venting or perforations decrease the disruption of air currents, that are detected by an insect and permit escape, chemical-free bug control and also reduces air resistance, making it easier to hit a quick-shifting goal. The flyswatter usually works by mechanically crushing the fly towards a tough surface, after the consumer has waited for the fly to land someplace. However, customers can even injure or stun an airborne insect mid-flight by whipping the swatter by means of the air at an excessive velocity. The abeyance of insects by use of brief horsetail staffs and fans is an ancient practice, relationship back to the Egyptian pharaohs.

The earliest flyswatters were in reality nothing more than some sort of striking floor attached to the end of a protracted stick. An early patent on a commercial flyswatter was issued in 1900 to Robert R. Montgomery who called it a fly-killer. Montgomery offered his patent to John L. Bennett, a rich inventor Zap Zone Defender and industrialist who made additional improvements on the design. The origin of the name "flyswatter" comes from Dr. Samuel Crumbine, Zap Zone Defender a member of the Kansas board of health, who needed to raise public awareness of the well being points attributable to flies. He was inspired by a chant at a neighborhood Topeka softball recreation: "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 device consisting of a yardstick hooked up to a bit of display, which Crumbine named "the flyswatter". The fly gun (or flygun), a derivative of the flyswatter, makes use of a spring-loaded plastic projectile to mechanically "swat" flies.

Mounted on the projectile is a perforated circular disk, which, chemical-free bug control in response to advertising copy, "won't splat the fly". Several comparable merchandise are offered, largely as toys or novelty gadgets, although some maintain their use as conventional fly swatters. Another gun-like design consists of a pair of mesh sheets spring loaded to "clap" together when a set off is pulled, squashing the fly between them. In contrast to the traditional flyswatter, chemical-free bug control such a design can solely be used on an insect in mid-air. A fly bottle or glass flytrap is a passive lure for flying insects. In the Far East, it's a big bottle of clear glass with a black metallic high with a hole within the middle. An odorous bait, equivalent to items of meat, is positioned in the bottom of the bottle. Flies enter the bottle seeking meals and chemical-free bug control are then unable to escape because their phototaxis conduct leads them anywhere within the bottle besides to the darker top the place the entry gap is.

A European fly bottle is more conical, with small toes that increase it to 1.25 cm (0.5 in), with a trough a few 2.5 cm (1 in) huge and deep that runs inside 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 draw flies, who eventually fly up into the bottle. The trough is crammed with beer or vinegar, into which the flies fall and drown. In the past, the trough was typically full of a dangerous mixture of milk, water, and arsenic or mercury chloride. Variants of these bottles are the agricultural fly traps used to battle the Mediterranean fruit fly and the olive fly, chemical-free bug control which have been in use because the thirties. They are smaller, with out feet, and the glass is thicker for rough outside usage, often involving suspension in a tree or bush. Modern versions of this machine are sometimes fabricated from plastic, and may be bought in some hardware shops.