How to get rid of a fly

It’s just that one that’s bothering you?

Anyways, I think you should do what (supposedly) Reb Binyamin (Franklin) did. He layed out electrified wires across his room and dared the insects to contact them.

turn off all the lights except one. The flies will likely head to it, and then you can whap them

Cheery, that wouldn’t really work unless the wires were hot enough to burn the files. Since the flies are only landing directly on the wire they are not grounded and will not conduct a current.

Ben Franklin knew how to generate electricity? Or did his contraption only work when it was hit by lightning (in which case the flies would have been the least of his worries)?

42: I thought R’ Aryeh Levin was famous for that, not R’ Moshe. (I’m not saying R’ Moshe was the same; just saying that that’s who it was usually said about.)

For static electricity one wire is enough. If the contacts are close enough you don’t need to be grounded.

Ben Franklyn generated static electricity with wool and glass.

R’ Moshe Meir Weiss tells a story of when he was sitting outside with R’ Moshe Feinstein. They each got a cup of tea and within minutes R’ Weiss’s tea attracted bugs and R’ Moshe Feinstein’s did not.