Lord of the Flies?

There is a MASSIVE FLY INVASION in my Houston apartment. Today while cooking, R opened the trash bin lid, and a swarm of at least twenty flies came BURSTING out. After we spent ten minutes chasing down the flies and killing them by hand/flyswatter, we decided to devise a fly-killing trap (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Fly-Trap). This took a while, and then we turned off all the lights in the apartment except one lamp, which we shone on the trap. For good measure, R put a piece of her curry chicken in a small bowl and placed it in the little cone of light as well.

We sat for a while, staring and waiting. In my mind's eye I'd pictured dozens of flies unwittingly flying into the jar as if being sucked in by a vacuum. Then, after they drowned in the warm sugary water, we would pick them out one by one and torture them (even though they were already dead?) and punish them for the extreme irritation they had caused us (this morning while I was practicing, I swear a fly flew up my nose...I mean, come on). But in reality, not one fly appeared. Even the chicken failed to attract them! When 15 or so minutes had passed, we were forced to sadly surrender and throw our little inventions away. As soon as we turned on the light, the swarm of flies were back, buzzing inches away from our faces, tickling our necks, and invading our bedrooms. So we spent another episode blundering around the room, pouncing at flies on the wall, clapping our hands at flies in the air etc. All I can say is, it's a sad sad evening when two 22-year-olds are made to look like complete lunatics/fools by a bunch of flies.