How to Keep Flies Out of Your House

There’s nothing more annoying than a swarm of tiny fruit flies buzzing around bins in the kitchen, or a housefly obnoxiously buzzing around your living room. In this blog, we’ll take you through some steps in how to deal with flies effectively and give you advice on how to keep flies out of your house.

Many of us believe flies are one of those problems that are a necessary evil, and there’s no way we can get rid of them, so we hope they’ll go away, and often, they will do. Others will chase flies frantically around the house in a bid to swat them.

How to Stop Flies Invading Your Home

Reduce Waste

The thing you can do first and foremost to discourage flies from entering your home is to effectively manage waste within your property.

Ensure there are no overflowing bins, no rubbish that’s dropped down the back of your bin, no rotting fruit or vegetables in pantries, cupboards or even at the bottom of the fruit bowls.

Flies can smell rotting food and waste from a significant distance away and will do everything they can to feed on it. Ensuring your waste is placed in a bin with a closeable lid, and you keep a check on all of your fresh food around the house, is one of the best ways to stop the attention from flies.

Store Food in Containers

Even if your food isn’t rotting, you need to store fresh food in containers and don’t just leave them on the side.

It’s tempting to leave food in the most convenient place possible when you know you’ll be using it to cook dinner that evening, but even food left out on the countertop for less than an hour can attract flies.

It’s always best to store your food in containers, and in the fridge or cupboard. Avoid leaving leftovers and food for preparation on your kitchen side, it can only lead to trouble.

DIY Fly Traps

There are a number of DIY methods you can use to reduce the number of fliers in your home if flies do get in your home, despite you following the steps above. Be careful though, these aren’t guaranteed to work with every kind of fly, nor will they eradicate flies in their entirety.

Bottle Traps

1. Clean an empty, plastic fizzy pop bottle (2L works better).

2. Cut the top third of the bottle, where the top of the label is.

3. Pour sweet liquid, like sugar water, in the larger (bottom third) of the bottle.

4. Turn the top third of the bottle upside down and place it on the bottom third to form a funnel-like hole at the top.

5. Flies will be able to get into the bottle, but not out.

Vinegar and Washing Up Liquid

1. Fill a shallow dish with apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar.

2. Add some fruit scented washing up liquid to the bowl.

3. Leave the dish in a hotspot where the flies are.

4. Flies will be attracted to the solution and be unable to fly out.

Scents and Flowers That Keep Flies Away

There are some scents and flowers that also keep flies away such as:

Basil
Bay leaves
Lavender
Mint

Hanging Eucalyptus Scented Oils

Put several drops of Eucalyptus oil on a ribbon or cloth.
Hang the ribbon or cloths in areas of the home.
These cloths and ribbons will naturally repel flies.

Treatment for Large Infestations of Flies

Whilst these DIY methods of repelling and catching are all good for a small concentration of flies, if you have a large number of flies in your property, it’s worth investigating more effective methods of removal.

Here at Confirm A Kill, we offer ULV Fogging treatment for properties, both domestic and commercial.

Ultra Low Volume (ULV) Fogging treatment is a relatively new technique of light fumigation which is ideal for internal areas. The treatment emits tiny droplets of specially formulated pesticides. The size of the droplets are key to the success, the smaller the droplet, the more areas that can be covered.

Unlike fumigation, which uses highly toxic gasses, ULV fogging uses pesticidal solutions that are far less dangerous. Fumigation also requires a sealed and airtight properties whereas ULV fogging doesn’t have to be. The main benefit though is that ULV fogging only requires homeowners or tenants to be out of the home for roughly 4 hours after the treatment has taken place, whereas fumigated properties should be left for two days.

You can find out more about ULV Fogging here.

If you require consultation about flies in your home, please call us on 0115 913 5724 or get in touch via our website