Fly Killer

[dylanfanatic]

When I was in my early teens and helping out on my mate's dad's farm there was a sprayer to kill flies called 'flit' and it did what it said on the tin. The 'elf and safety' morons banned it in the late 60's and now the shelves are full of products called 'Vapona' 'Raid' and all sorts of useless concoctions - I suppose the E.U. have been poking their noses in like they have with light bulbs and vacuum cleaners, and expecting us to buy useless crap as always!!

[Tilly2]

I don't think that the removal of 'Flit' was anything to do with the EU.

[Tilly2]

See DDT.

[Mamyalynne]

Some history on 'Flit'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLIT

[Flonska]

Aah - the good old flit gun!

My grandfather always kept it within easy reach!

Flit apparently contained Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, which we could not say or spell so the acronym DDT was interpreted as something easier to remember - "Drop Dead Twice!"

[Tilly2]

...and it wasn't banned by 'elf and safety' morons...

[woofgang]

As I recall, birds ate DDT poisoned insects and it thinned their eggshells contributing to the loss of a good percentage of the bird population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring

[kvalidir]

#thingsineverthoughtpeoplewouldbesorrytseethebackof #ripddt #backinthedaywecouldpoisonourselveswheneverweliked

[fiction-factory]

Yes, those will be the same health & safety morons that stopped us using asbestos in our buildings. I agree though that things like Raid don't seem very good. I recall someone saying on here that furniture polish is more effective on flies.

[Prudie]

I have had such macabre joy lately at honing my swatting skills with a rolled up paper.

[gingejbee]

...and light bulbs and vacuum cleaners are better than they've ever been.....so find something else to moan about!

[Hopkirk]

Have you noticed how few bees there are around these days?

[diddlydo]

Plenty of bees in my wildlife friendly garden.

[Peter Pedant]

FLIT - was DDT - it started coming out in mothers' milk and was thought to be a bad thing.... even if the children were little pests !

The prof of radiotherapy was a wordy old soul and told us 1975 of the original experiments on DDT - first used to control the typhus epidemic in Italy in 1944 I think. The flies in the cage died, and they washed it and they died and they washed it ......
40 times. they k new they were onto a winner.

memories of 50 y ago - i dont know why more people dont do it
I cd never work up the pressure for the FLIT machine to go zzt !

[Peter Pedant]

// I have had such macabre joy lately at honing my swatting skills with a rolled up paper.//

you need a pierced swatty thing
the flies can sense the 'coming wind' that the unperforated paper generates

[Canary42]

/// Yes, those will be the same health & safety morons that stopped us using asbestos in our buildings.///

... and stopped us using Thalidomide; and taking Mercury internally; and supervising X-rays unprotected; and using lead in water pipes, paint & petrol . . . . . . . .

[Peter Pedant]

// Yes, those will be the same health & safety morons that stopped us using asbestos in our buildings//

employer has joint liability ( with other employers) so the lucky victim can claim the whole lot against just one .

one hosuewife got mesothelioma from washing her husbands overalls

Long Fibre blue asbestos - chrysidolite - found in the then southern rhodesia I recollect

[Calibax]

I was taught a limerick to remember what DDT stood for:
A mosquito was heard to complain,
That a chemist had poisoned his brain.
The cause of his sorrow
Was para-Dichloro-
diphenyl-trichloro-ethane.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah n elf n safety morons stopped that sheep dip that gave everyone motor neurone disease

and all that lardy daah about seat belts

[sandyRoe]

There must have been good reason to take it off the market. Maybe it harmed the health of humans as well as killing flies

[tonyav]

dylanfanatic, don't be forgetting about sodium chlorate, best weed killer that ever was.