Looking for natural yet effective ways to get rid of flies? Check out these tricks and tips.
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How to Get Rid of Flies | 6 Ways to Make Flies Go Away
Flies Are More Than Just Annoying
There's nothing like flies in the house most annoying insect in the summer months. At the end of the summer season, you probably will have waved your arms to shoo flies away at least a hundred times.
Of course, the most classic phrase “Shut the door! You’re letting the flies in!” is heard in every household across the nation all summer long. But, are they harmless?
In fact, ‘how to get rid of flies and mosquitoes', are some of the top searches online. Indication of the need to get rid of these pesky pests once and for all.
Let’s learn a little more about this seemingly harmless insect…
Why You Need to and Should Get Rid of Flies?
Did you know there are over 100,000 known species of flies? Who knows how many unknown species there really are.
Did you also know flies are carriers of deadly diseases? Flies infest meat and other food items, spreading food-poisoning bacteria like salmonella enteritidis.
Because a fly is a restless insect, it moves back and forth between food and filth, and this helps it spread infections faster. Flies are attracted to food by their sense of smell; however, they cannot eat solid food.
When a fly reaches the food it vomits on the solid food and creates a solution of it, then sucks it which, in turn, contaminates the food.
What are some other diseases spread by flies? Here is a complete list of reasons to get rid of flies for good:
- Flies can cause typhoid and paratyphoid fevers.
- They can also spread some other diseases like diarrhea and dysentery, cholera, and conjunctivitis by mechanical contamination.
- Other diseases carried by house flies include salmonella, anthrax, and tuberculosis.
- They are also known to transmit the eggs of parasitic worms.
- Sandflies found in South America, Africa, and Europe are carriers of a microorganism responsible for a disease that eats away at human skin. This disease is known as Leishmaniasis.
Why Use Natural Ways to Get Rid of Flies?
Let’s talk about repellents and deterrents to get rid of flies and other insects.
As with my other articles this summer, I will share recipes for all-natural fly repellents and deterrents. They are safer for you, your family, and your pets.
Harsh chemicals can cause more harm than good. So, before you reach for a store-bought can of insect repellent spray, read the following information on how to get rid of flies the all-natural way.
Here’s a list of all-natural recipes and tricks to get rid of flies we’ll cover in this article:
1. Vodka Based Repellent
For some reason, flies hate vodka.
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They just cannot bear its smell, which is why some people use vodka-based repellents to get rid of flies.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 cup of vodka
- 2 tsp of aloe vera juice
- 1 tsp of lemon eucalyptus oil
- 1/2 tsp of essential oil blend
- Spray bottle
Instructions:
After mixing the ingredients, pour the mixture into a spray bottle. This can be applied on your skin or it can be sprayed near the infested area to repel flies.
2. Lemongrass Oil Repellent
Lemongrass oil has strong insect repellent properties.
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You can use the lemongrass oil to make a fly-repellent spray that also works as a room freshener.
What You’ll Need:
- 20-25 drops of lemongrass essential oil
- ½ cup of hot water
- Spray bottle
Instructions:
After mixing the ingredients together, pour them into a spray bottle. Spray it along your doorways, windows, or any other fly-infested area.
Note: In the absence of lemongrass oil, you can also use other essential oils such as lavender oil, citronella oil, eucalyptus oil, pennyroyal oil, or peppermint oil. With these essential oils, however, you won’t achieve the same results with lemongrass oil.
3. Clove-Based Deterrent
Cloves are pleasurably aromatic for humans, but flies (particularly house flies) cannot stand the scent of cloves.
Here's a recipe to keep flies away using cloves.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 lemon
- 6 to 12 cloves
- Plate
Instructions:
To make this deterrent, take a lemon and cut it into two halves. Poke 6-12 cloves into each half of the lemon.
Place it on a plate and place it in places you want to deter flies. Great for outdoor activities!
RELATED: Homemade Mosquito Repellents | 3 Natural Recipes
4. Apple Cider Vinegar and Witch Hazel Repellent
Want to know how to get rid of house flies with vinegar?
It's amazing how much you can do with apple cider vinegar! https://t.co/mZqdGKV3eE pic.twitter.com/RE5fnhGBTo
— Survival Life (@SurvivalLF) August 8, 2016
This natural repellent works mainly with the common housefly.
What You’ll Need:
- 1/4 cup of witch hazel
- 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 30 – 60 drops of eucalyptus oil
- Spray bottle
Instructions:
- Mix 1/4 cup of witch hazel with 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.
- Add 30 – 60 drops of eucalyptus oil.
- Shake well.
- You can apply this repellent to the uncovered areas of your body.
Note: Avoid spraying near your eyes and mouth.
5. Sugar-Water Fly Trap
What You’ll Need:
- Wide-mouthed jar
- Sugar water
- Paper cone
Instructions:
- Pour the sugar water into the jar.
- Cut a 1 cm diameter hole at the apex of the paper cone.
- Place the cone in the jar upside-down (it should not touch the liquid.)
Since the jar contains sweet liquid, the flies will be attracted to it and will go down through the cone into the jar. Once inside, they won’t be able to fly up through the hole to come out, therefore they’ll be trapped inside.
6. DIY Fly Paper
Flypaper is coated with a sweet fragrant (and extremely sticky) substance that attracts flies. The store-bought flypaper will often have a layer of a poisonous substance above the sticky portion of the flypaper.
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You can make your own flypaper at home without the poisonous layer. Here’s how.
What You’ll Need:
- Sheets of brown paper or thin cards
- Scissors
- Saucepan
- A large-sized spoon for stirring
- Corn syrup
- Water
Instructions:
- Cut the brown paper sheets into 2-inch wide strips.
- Measure equal parts of corn syrup and water pour into a saucepan and heat the mixture until it starts to boil.
- Constantly stir the mixture with the spoon while heating until it slightly thickens.
- After this, remove the pan from the heat and soak the strips in the mixture for at least 4 – 5 hours.
- Take out the strips and allow them to dry for 2-3 hours.
- When the strips are completely dry, hang them in the fly-infested area and your homemade flypaper is ready to catch flies.
Watch this video from Household Hacker for another step-by-step guide to making another fly trap to help get rid of flies:
When the fly season is on, they are practically everywhere. Unfortunately, one way to get rid of flies may be effective for a while but then there always seems to be another batch to take over.
Try a couple or more of these tricks to see which one works best. So far, the sugar water flytrap and flypaper are effective for me, especially outdoors.
Which of these ways on to get rid of flies are you eyeing to make soon? Tell us your thoughts about it in the comments section below!
Up Next:
- How To Repel Pests With Essential Oils
- 21 Home Remedies For Toothache Pain Relief
- 5 Beneficial Insects For The Garden: Good Bugs Vs. Bad Bugs
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on August 8, 2016, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
Lovely will be trying them! Xxx
M-2. A purchased a hairspray at the dollar store and sprayed it on my hat, got out of my truck the swarm of vicious yellow flies that followed me into the farm came towards me then veered off and didn’t come back. It was in a yellow-gold can. I will post again when I get the name. Amazing stuff but doesn’t work for mosquito
M r grate, I think you might be talking about ” It” hairspray, I use it for my hair all the time, thanks for the tip,
Awesome remedy’s – simplest one was lemongrass but liked the clove one too
Any suggestions for killing maggots?
Vacuum them up with a dust buster n throw them out! That’s how I do it.
Vacuum them up with a dust buster n throw them out!in the trash outside. That’s how I do it.
Chickens. They love ’em.
Boiling hot water. Kills instantly, making them look like puffed rice.
Now, how do you eliminate MOTHS?!!!
Smash their little Moth Balls !!!
ROFL!!! Oh, that was a great reply!
Hell yeah !!!!
I have had a recent infestation of stegosaurus. Any suggestion of removing them from my house?
Are you sure of the name of what is attacking you?
He has and infestation of Moths in his Thatched Roof. Bobby The Sea Going Hillbilly in TN.
Tell the kids to put those dinosaur toys away.
Yes John, Acquire an RDS-220 and place it in the approximate center of your home. Electrically activate it and I guarantee it will remove all your pests, (rats, mice, stegosaurus’s, etc.) from your home.
I’m not sure about this one but I’m all for biological controls when possible. Try Tyrannosaurus Rex on those.
BTW. Hope you have a BIG, STURDY house!
Could you be more clear on the sugar water – jar fly trap please . I don’t understand which end of the cone goes towards the bottom of the jar nor how the cone is affixed to the jar itself. I’m thinking putting a hole in the jar lid then insert cone or make the cone wide enough so that the large section is well seated in the jar opening with the smaller portion of the cone pointing towards the bottom ??? Thinking this should also work for yellow jackets and wasps… Thanks
– Darrell
How do you get rid of gnats there driving me crazy I made a solution and it works but I still have alot of them
we have chicken house flies from All around us what would be the best to get these pain in the butt from outside our yard
I have a small powerful handheld vac with hose and nozzle that is a blast to catch lies and nats with.
No mess from swatting. No messy liquids to contend with. Just leave them in the canister for a few days and dump them in the trash.
How do I get rid of those TEENY TINY FRUIT FLIES…..( I believe that is what they are called….u get them when u have rotted fruit and then they like to live in the sink & water in the dishes in the sink) I have gotten rid of the fruit that was overlooked till it rotted and I am trying to keep the water outta the dishs in the sink also but they are still WAY TO MANY FOR MY LIKING
Poor distilled white vinegar down your drains, wait for as long as the next day and then pour some cheap household bleach down the drains.
I’ve worked in bars and restaurants my whole life, that the easiest and most efficient way to reduce fruit fly populations. It may not get rid of them all but the majority of fruit flies species typically nest in open drains where it dark and damp.
Also boiling hot water works temporarily.
Also, put your fruit in the refrigerator or if you must leave it out on the counter or cupboard, put your fruit and vegetables in a produce bag. The kind you tear of the roll in every produce department in the world, plus trying the bag closed limits the amount of oxygen exposure to fresh produce and help it slow the ripening/rotting cycle
02 March 2019 If you have a Septic Tank, DO NOT POUR BLEACH OR VINEGAR DOWN YOUR DRAINS!
The Bleach will kill all the Bacteria in your Septic Tank.
This lesson learned the Hard Way with a Cost of $500.00 Plus to get Septic Tank Pumped because of no Bacteria to eat the waste in the Septic Tank.
It ain’t like the Out Houses where you dig a hole and move it to the new hole. Bobby The Sea Going Hillbilly Briggs in TN.
I bought a electric fly swatter. It uses 2 AA batteries. I love it. It gets them dead Now. Don’t touch it while it’s on, it can cause quit a Big jolt!
Aren’t those great! Fun and effective. A little smelly when you zap a bigger insect.
A easier way to make fly paper. Just use masking tape / use 2 thin pieces to tape a larger piece to something & with a few small drops of Sugar or Sugar + Water or Honey or something else they like, im sure nobody will have any problem with this & it won`t take 2-3hrs. either, more like 2-3 minutes.
Fruit fly trap. Long neck clear bottle with cider vinegar in bottom – about half an inch. If you have fruit out on the counter. put it close by. Not so good is a small preserve jar. Put cider vinegar in bottom and place cling film over top. Hold with elastic band and leave in place Heat 6″ nail or similar and make ¼ ” hole in film.
We should be aware as to how to get rid of flies naturally. This article would be a huge help. Thanks for sharing this one out.