does anyone know of a net (similar to a butterfly net) that can be used 
to catch black flies outdoors.  We have small dogs and when they do their 
business, swarms of black flies descend upon it and it is ruining our
back yard fun.  We clean up frequently but still their #'s are increasing.
I have one of those electronic bug killers but it doesn't seem to attract the 
flies, only mosquitos.  My husband's idea is to swat them with the net catcher
and then spray them, thus killing enough of them so they can't notify all
their friends.  thanks    pat winchild  pwinchild@hotmail.com

Just a quick word of caution:
I have discovered from experience that sometimes killing the flies
just makes more flies--they are attracted to the corpses of their
friends, I guess.  I used to hang flypaper and sit outside with a
flyswatter and kill as many as I could, and there were tons of flies
everywhere.  Then I stopped killing them, and they stopped pestering
me.  So I would suggest that if you do kill lots of the flies, keep
them in an air-tight container, or dispose of them so that other flies
can't find them.  Or see what happens if you stop trying to get rid of
them for a while.  The constant poop-patrol idea, while certainly a
pain, may be the best way to get rid of them.
Good Luck!