Home : Bugs and pests : Keep Flies and Flying insects at bay

Keep Flies Away. Deter flying insects from your home

Flies can spread at least 30 different diseases to people and animals. They lay their eggs on rotting meat and other rubbish/garbage and in warm weather multiply at a phenomenal rate. So if you are having problems with flies in areas of your home where you would rather them not to be then have a read of a few tips I have listed below that should help deter flies.

Flies are attracted to food and rubbish/garbage. So keep all food and rubbish tightly covered, clean your rubbish bins with disinfectant regularly especially in the summer months.

Do not keep piles of manure or rotting compost, rotting fruit or vegetables near your house as they attract flies.

Put up fly screens over windows or doors. Fly screens can be a fine mesh that allows air through but does not allow insects. You can also buy tape screens that hang over your door that you can sweep to one side as you walk through.

At night many flying insects are attracted by light. So if you leave your windows open at night and have your lights on then you are going to attract a multitude of unwanted visitors around your light bulbs. If you have to leave a light on and you window open then make a home made fly screen out of some very fine mesh or netting and tape it over the open window. The finer the fabric the better. The mesh will stop the insects in their tracks.

As a general rule flying insects do not like smoke. So light an incense stick or a candle to drive them away from an area. There special candles that contain citronella that also deter certain flies.

If you are trying to deter flies from congregating in a particular area then leave a dish out containing molasses and black pepper. It will deter the airborne menaces.

To stop wasps, hornets or bees in their tracks give them a spray with some hairspray. Please be careful where you are spraying hairspray though as it is not nice stuff to be spraying around. If you do hit a bee or other insect then do quickly put the creature out of it's misery as spraying it with hairspray is not killing it, it is merely disabling it.

There are also a few natural herbs that deter flies. Put sprigs of elder, lavender, mint, pennyroyal, rue or southern wood in vases, or hang them up to keep flies away. Rub the leaves frequently so that the smell is released.

Visitors comments

How to keep flies away...cheap! Comments By: Karen Tynes on 2004-07-27 Fill a quart zip lock bag half full of water. Add 15 pennies. Close. Put into another bag and suspend in the area to be protects. This WORKS!   pennies in a bag of water Comments By: Darryl on 2005-07-29 This works, but does anyone know why?   The way I heard it Comments By: Jason on 2005-09-29 The way I heard it the pennies aren't necessary. The light refracting thru the bag and water messes with the many eyes a fly has. But I've heard that with a single penny, the flies think that the penny is a spider. Never heard it with a lot of pennies until now.   sugar water Comments By: Bernie on 2006-06-05 you have to put water in the sugar to make it work. It is suposed to resemble a hornets nest and flys won't come near.   Sugar Comments By: matt on 2006-08-03 when it looks like a hornet nest ur gunna attract hornets i'd rather have flies then hornets buddy.   flies Comments By: mike on 2007-08-13 how do you suspend the bag? TipKing says: I would think with some string or rope   bag of water Comments By: Donna Drewry on 2007-08-20 I have tried this several times and it does not work for me.   hornets are better than any other bee Comments By: TN_farmboy on 2009-05-04 we actually look for small hornet nests to keep around (old ones) As said before flys wont go where a hornet nest is. and you can spray a clear coat on the nest and real hornets wont bother it either.   pennies in a bag of water. Comments By: Layla on 2009-08-01 I would just stick with 2 pennies in a bag of water. I mean ive tried it and it is plenty easy and it works. And thats sooo stupid it resembles a hornets nest! come on wats worse.   pennies in a bag Comments By: Anon on 2010-05-26 when placing the pennies in water to keep flies away, should it be hung in the sun?   Uh its obvious.... Comments By: Old Nik from TN on 2010-08-06 It might be that the water changes the light to confuse the fly from a distance or up close, but i've always heard you drop one penny to make it resemble a hornet's nest... not 15 pennies jesus christ... as mentioned earlier flies won't go near a hornet's nest or wasp's nest. And just because it resembles a hornets nest doesn't mean it will attract hornets. lol If anything, other wasps, bees, and hornets will be repelled because there is already a nest in the area. A queen doesn't want anything to do with an entire colony. They'll kill her. They're mean and will sting you for no reason, they're not like "bees," although carpenter bees will hover around their nest and chase ANY other insects away. Unless it something big like an animal or human, which it will also sting if it feels provokes by them. Obviously light and sunlight plays a part, if the suns not up well flies aren't on the prowl. Duh. Artificial light at night might attract them so leave a light near the bag of water so they see the fake hornet's nest. Put the bag of water by the light beside your door outside. And to the scientists doing experiments with flies, you cannot raise the flies with the bags in the room with them. They will naturally realize there is nothing dangerous about the bag. So you're missing a variable. They have to have experienced the wild and hornet's chasing them and things trying to attack them. Duh. Again. lol Oh, and you can hang it in any fashion, string or nail or anything really, just realize that it needs to be where there is an entrance to the house or location you're trying to repel them from. Otherwise you'll drive them from that location over to where you are at. Â