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How to Repel Flies Naturally

There are a lot of non-toxic ways to keep flies away without chemicals, we just need to know the tricks! Here’s how to repel flies quickly and naturally so you can have a clean and healthy home with natural pest control.

how to repel flies

How to Repel Flies for Good

It’s not easy to get rid of houseflies once you have them and what’s more frustrating is that they carry a many viruses and bacteria, lay eggs, and defecate on surfaces. Flies can also spread food poisoning, E. coli, dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever and tuberculosis.

The best way to help keep flies away from your home is to prevent them from entering. Flies are not only troublesome, they can also carry disease and are a health hazard if left untreated.

House Fly Life Cycle

House flies are attracted to pungent smells because they are looking for places to lay their eggs. That usually means wood, garbage, animal feces, and decaying or rotting material.

There are 4 major stages in the life cycle of a typical house fly. At the beginning of the first stage, 150 eggs are laid in an environment like garbage, composite, or manure where there is a lot of food available.

Then eggs began to hatch within a day and the larva feeds on the food for 5-14 days. After this, the larva crawls to some dry place to pupate. The pupae transform into an adult after 3-4 weeks. Adult flies can live for about a month and during this time they can produce 500 to 2,000 eggs.

How to Keep Flies Away

The most effective way to make your home less attractive to flies is to limit access to their preferred areas. These are some great preventative measures to keeping flies under control.

  • Make sure your screens, windows, doors, and house vents are sealed and free from holes, gaps, or tears.
  • Store food in airtight containers, especially outside.
  • Don’t leave grass clippings or leaves piled up near your house.
  • Turn off outdoor lights at night when they’re not necessary.
  • Avoid using poison to kill rodents, because the carcasses can attract flies.
  • Clean up animal feces, such as in a cat’s litter box, right away.
  • Put away food and wash dishes immediately after a meal.
  • Clean up spilled foods immediately.
  • Keep garbage tightly sealed and take it out regularly.
  • Keep the garbage disposal area clean and sealed.
  • Keep compost materials in sealed containers.
  • Wash trash cans and lids regularly with hot, soapy water.

Garbage Tip

If you have large garbage bins in your home, you might want to use small bins during fly season so you can take out the trash every day and flies won’t have any food sources to attract them to your home. If you already have a heavy fly infestation in your home, move the garbage outside and do not allow any garbage to collect inside the home.

DIY Fly Trap

A homemade fly trap is much like the DIY Wasp Trap and works the same way in that the flies can get inside the container and are attracted to the solution, but due to the construction, the flies are not able to get out and eventually drown in the water inside.

You can use anything sweet like sugar water, honey water, fruit, etc. Set the fly traps wherever you need to catch flies – like that old saying “You catch more flies with honey!”

Essential Oils

Lemongrass oil has strong insect repellent properties also makes your house smell amazing.

To make this spray you will have to mix the following ingredients:

  • Lemongrass essential oil- 20-25 drops
  • Hot water about 1/2 cup

Keep the solution in a spray bottle and spray it along your doorways and windows or any other fly-infested area.

Note: In absence of Lemongrass oil you could also use other natural oils like Lavender oil, Citronella oil, Eucalyptus oil, Pennyroyal oil, or Peppermint oil. But with them, you won’t achieve the results that you would get with Lemongrass oil.

Home Remedies for Flies

Cloves

Poke about 20 whole cloves into a ripe apple or a piece of citrus fruit, place it on a plate and watch the flies disappear.

Lavender

Lavender is one of the easiest ways to get rid of houseflies because it is widely available in so many forms. Growing lavender plants outside, putting a bouquet of fresh lavender in a vase, and burning lavender oil near entryways and windows helps keep flies out of your house.

Citrus

Many commercial fly repellents contain orange or lemon extracts, not just for the scent, but because citrus oil is a natural fly repellent. Place citrus peels in an area where the flies are buzzing. Place the peels in a small cloth on a dish to keep them moist and rub the peels every once in a while to keep the scent fresh. You can also make an orange peel pesiticide spray to be sprayed in areas where the flies are buzzing.

Basil

Basil is a versatile herb that can be grown in gardens, flowerbeds and indoor pots. Plant basil near the window or entryway to keep flies out of your house or in outside gardens to keep the flies away when you’re outside.

Pine

Pine oil is a strong natural fly repellent – you can soak cotton balls in pine oil and place them in a bowl wherever you see flies or in the corners of windowsills.

Cayenne Pepper

Cayenne pepper is an excellent natural fly repellent and also deters many other insects. Mix one cup of water and one teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a misting bottle and spray it near entryways and wherever you see flies.

Other natural fly repellents include lemongrass, peppermint, eucalyptus, camphor, and cinnamon. Whether you use these scents in essential oil formulas, potpourris or other forms, these natural remedies for pest control do an excellent job and leave your home smelling wonderful.

Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous earth kills insects by damaging the exoskeleton. The particles are sharp and create tiny cuts that desiccate the fly and kills it. It is one of the most effective natural methods to keep flies away.

Shake it onto your houseplants and around doorways or windowsills or other areas where you have seen flies. A fine dust of the diatomaceous earth is all it takes to kill flies and other insect pests.

Simple and Effective Dish Soap Fly Spray

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 7-10 drops dish detergent
  • 1/2 teaspoon of Borax

Mix until the Borax dissolves. Spray directly on flies.