During the summer months, flies can be a real problem in most parts of the world. Keeping them out of your house can be a real hassle. Many people leave doors and windows open to allow airflow into their house. If you don’t have file screens in place then insects tend to make their way in.
In this post, I will show you 5 simple ways how to keep flies out of your house in summer, autumn, winter, and spring.
Table of Contents
1. Coins in a clear bag filled with water.
Now don’t laugh but a really simple way to keep flies out when the door is open is to hang a clear plastic bag filled with water and a few shiny coins in the bottom. The plastic bag has to be totally clear like the see-through sandwich bags.
Place a mixture of different-sized coins and colors in the bag. I find a few different colors and shapes to be very effective in keeping flies out of your home. Polishing them with a good metal polish will make them more effective and shine better. The penny, nickel, dime, and quarter work really well together in a clear plastic bag.
The logic here is that flies go into hiding when it rains. The bag filled with water refracts the sun’s rays just like rain will do. The shiny coins will scatter the light in different directions.
It is an old wives tale but it works surprisingly well if flies are hanging around the front door.
I even do this when we go camping. We place the clear coin bag in the tent door opening. This way it keeps flies away so they don’t get into our Coleman 8-person tent with a full rain fly.
2. What scents can keep flies away?
Certain scents can repel flies and keep them outside. Many are non-toxic and safe to be used indoors. The following smells will keep flies away these include:
- Basil
- Cloves
- Mint
- Lavender
- Cinnamon
- Eucalyptus
- Peppermint
- Lemongrass essential oils
- Apple cider vinegar
These scents can be used in or outside the house by planting these herbs, using air fresheners, scented candles, essential oils, or diffusers.
Flies hate these herbs that have a pleasant scent and will avoid them. It is what I use to keep flies away outside. Masking food smells such as meat and seafood using these scents will help keep the flies away.
3. Ways to get rid of flies – fly spray.
If flies are already in your house there are a number of ways to get them outside or kill them.
- Spray them with commercial or homemade fly spray.
- Make some scents that the flies don’t like such as the ones mentioned above such as peppermint, lemongrass, Eucalyptus Lavender etc
- Kill them with a fly swatter. But this can be a challenge at times.
Homemade fly repellent
A mixture of liquid dish soap, water, baking soda, and vinegar can be filled into a spray bottle. This can be sprayed around openings where flies are coming in. It is safe and non-toxic for your family but deadly to flies. Add a few drops of essential oils such as lavender to make it smell nice and keep flies away.
Ingredients:
- 500ml spray bottle.
- 300ml of clean water.
- 100ml of white vinegar.
- 2 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid soap.
- 2 tablespoons of baking soda.
- Few drops of your favorite scented oils such as Basil, Cloves, Mint, Lavender, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus, or Peppermint
If you spray this homemade fly repellent directly onto a fly it will drop out of the sky and die.
4. Carnivorous plants
Planting carnivorous house plants will do wonders in keeping the local file population down to a minimum. These include Venus flytrap, Sundews, and Pitcher plants.
Venus flytraps are the more popular carnivorous plants around. They work by oozing nectar inside the venus flytrap leaf. This is attractive to the fly which will start to feed. Once the fly activates a few leaf sensors the trap will close and the fly will be consumed over a period of 10 days.
5. Sticky fly trap baits
Flytrap sticky tapes work very well as they produce an odor that attracts the fly and traps them when they land. Some people don’t like the look of them due to the dead flies stuck over the tape. But you could always place them in an area that hides the sticky tape fly bait like behind a hanging fern or flower pot.
A good thing is these sticky tape fly traps are non-toxic, and safe to use around pregnant women, children, and pets in your family.
The insect trap I use are double-sided, so you can make full use of the flytrap. You can easily dispose of it when the strip is full and the fly population is reduced.
I like that it doesn’t only catch flies it also catches aphids, leaf miners, fungus gnats, white flies, black flies, midges, mosquitoes, and other flying insects. I hate mosquitoes and I swell up bad after being bitten. I’m often learning about new ways to get rid of mosquito bites and stings.
They are a great way to keep flies out of your house in summer even though they look ugly.
DIY Fly Traps.
Apple cider vinegar fly trap: To make a fly trap you will need a glass of water, a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a few drops of dish soap, and a tablespoon of sugar. This can be mixed together in a cup or bowl and placed in an area where flies are active. The sugar and apple cider vinegar attracts flies and other insects which will get trapped in the water due to the dish soap. They will eventually drown if not disposed of quickly.
Fruit fly trap: Cut some fruit up into small pieces and place them in a car or cup. Cover the jar with perforated plastic wrap. Fruit Flies will get attracted to the rotten fruit and over time find their way into the jar through the small holes. They will then get stuck inside and are unable to escape.
Conclusion
If you like the outdoors but have a problem with fly control then try some of these ideas mentioned above to reduce the fly population. They all will help how to keep flies from coming into your house, especially in summer.
If you have a dog then remove the dog droppings as soon as possible. Dog poo will attract flies fast due to the smell and will hang around the garden.
Bins with decomposing food will also attract flies. Place food into plastic bags and tie them off to reduce the smell. Spraying the bin with a quality contact fly spray will kill the flies when they land in the bin. You may need to do it every day to be effective.
Planting Lavender Basil, Cloves, and Mint will make your garden smell nice and discourage flies. If you see a spider web in a tree or order of the hose leave it in place as they are great at natural fly population control.
As an electrician and a survivalist prepper, I want to share some of my ideas, thoughts, hardware, and survival techniques I have learned over the past 20 years. The world is changing fast and we need to be repaired for what may come if society breaks down.
