Fly Control And Ice Making

Well. I'm back to driving again with Schneider and the actual driving is going great. I've made some mistakes with the ELD, but the IT department has been great. (I'm on a first name basis with several of them, lol). Getting back in the groove and feeling more confident every day. The backing is going great and I haven't hit anything.

I've noticed that every time I open my door I get flies in the cab. These flies greatly annoy me. I don't like to be annoyed. I regret that I didn't bring a flyswatter with me. I stopped at a Walmart to buy one, but to my amazement, Walmart does not carry them. Truck stops? Not any that I have fueled at. I suspect that there is a nation wide flyswatter shortage, no doubt due to Covid and the container ship backups on both coasts. I'll have to try a dollar store or a mom and pop hardware store.

In the meantime, I've had to resort to sticky fly strips hung in strategic locations in my truck. And I have caught a few flies, but other flies are too intelligent to land on a strip.

How do you eradicate flies from your truck? Any cool tricks?

The other thing is ice. My beverage of choice is ice tea. I buy gallon jugs and keep 4 or 5 gallons in the truck. However, I like a lot of ice with the tea. How can I keep a sufficient quantity of ice in the truck? My ref/freezer doesn't do the job. Any ideas on this?

I generally try to talk to the flies, encourage them to stay on their side of the truck and respect my personal space. This never seems to work though and I wind up killing them for their bad decisions lol. Seriously, I don’t know that there’sa perfect fix for flies. Pulling hopper bottom and visiting so many chicken and pork processing facilities, there’s no way to keep them out and they can be quite annoying. A fly swatter helps, or an old hat if need be. Luckily, it’s about to start cooling off temp wise and they get slower and easier to kill.

I throw my ice cubes at the flies. You may not like that option, but it is fun!

Flies are hard to get rid of. I just kill them with a swatter. I don't recommend doing this while driving.

Ice is easy. When I need ice in my cup I pull into a truck stop. Pull through an open fuel bay and stop past the pump. Run into the soda machine, full your cup with ice, and get on your way. Nobody has ever tried to charge me for the ice. I know, I am a pathetic mooch, but I burn a lot of diesel so I take advantage of a few perks here and there. I don't think they are losing money off of me.

I generally try to talk to the flies, encourage them to stay on their side of the truck and respect my personal space. This never seems to work though and I wind up killing them for their bad decisions lol. Seriously, I don’t know that there’sa perfect fix for flies. Pulling hopper bottom and visiting so many chicken and pork processing facilities, there’s no way to keep them out and they can be quite annoying. A fly swatter helps, or an old hat if need be. Luckily, it’s about to start cooling off temp wise and they get slower and easier to kill.

I respect your non violent approach to start with and if that doesn't work it's understandable that you start killing.

Old School, great suggestion about getting ice. Also, PackRat, you have the ICECO unit. That sounds like a good possibility for me. Looked them up on the internet and they are not cheap, but seem to be high quality appliances. What model would you recommend and how well does ii work for freezing ice cubes?

I also reccomend getting free ice from truckstops. Take in your own cup and its free.

Now, for the flies. I wholeheartedly recommend this Raid brand flying insect killer. No other brand. It sprays a really fine mist, just spray on or near the flies, mosquitoes or any other small thing to kill them quickly. It doesn't collect on surfaces or leave a residue and dissipates quickly. It works great! (Disclaimer, I do not and have never worked for SCJohnson or its member affiliates nor have I or will I receive compensation for this endorsement)

Have you proposed to them? It worked for my ex

PackRat, you have the ICECO unit..... What model would you recommend and how well does ii work for freezing ice cubes?

I have the model number VL45GSV, and it will freeze anything down to negative 15 degrees F. I don't know about ice cubes because I have no need for them. I drink most everything except coffee at room temperature.

I would echo others here on the ice solution by getting it free at a truck stop. Get one of those huge insulated drinking "kegs" they sell at TA/Petro. Biggest drinking apparatus I've seen outside of Germany during Oktoberfest.

Careful with too much tea as that's a caffeine overload at the end of a day, making sleep fitful.

To make the ice last I use a vacuum-insulated growler. You put the ice in the growler then put the growler in the fridge - you'll have ice for days. If you're that dependent on ice why not just get an ice maker? For less than $100 you can make up to 26 pounds of ice a day!

The reason you see more flies at a dump than at a hospital is because they're attracted to scents - both smells you can smell and pheromones you can't. My truck isn't spotless but I do give it a good cleaning quarterly. It's rare a fly tries to stowaway on my truck but when they do they're easily evicted with my dust buster.

To make the ice last I use a vacuum-insulated growler. You put the ice in the growler then put the growler in the fridge - you'll have ice for days. If you're that dependent on ice why not just get an ice maker? For less than $100 you can make up to 26 pounds of ice a day!

The reason you see more flies at a dump than at a hospital is because they're attracted to scents - both smells you can smell and pheromones you can't. My truck isn't spotless but I do give it a good cleaning quarterly. It's rare a fly tries to stowaway on my truck but when they do they're easily evicted with my dust buster.

Maybe I just need to improve my personal hygiene. Lol.