Dealing with flies buzzing around your home can be incredibly frustrating, especially as the weather warms up. While completely sealing off your house isn’t always practical or desirable, especially when you want to enjoy fresh air, there are numerous effective strategies to significantly reduce the number of flies that venture inside. If you’re wondering how to keep these pesky insects out, you’re in the right place.
The truth is, there’s no foolproof method to guarantee a 100% fly-free home with open doors and windows. However, by understanding what attracts flies and taking proactive steps to eliminate these attractants, you can dramatically minimize their presence in your living space.
This guide will walk you through identifying common types of house flies, pinpointing what lures them into your home, and, most importantly, detailing actionable steps you can take to deter flies and maintain a more comfortable, fly-free environment.
The most frequent uninvited guests are typically houseflies, blue bottle flies, and fruit flies. Fortunately, preventing them from becoming household regulars is simpler than you might think!
Let’s first address the common misconception about fly traps.
Are Fly Traps a Good Solution?
While it might seem intuitive to use fly traps like sticky flypaper, they are often counterproductive when your goal is to keep flies out of your house, particularly if you prefer to leave windows and doors open.
Fly traps work by attracting flies, which means they lure them in – precisely what you’re trying to avoid! Many of these attracted flies might end up buzzing around your living areas before, or even instead of, getting caught. Plus, let’s be honest, fly traps are not exactly aesthetically pleasing additions to your home decor.
The satisfaction of seeing flies trapped might be tempting, but in reality, attracting them in the first place can exacerbate the problem, drawing even more flies to your property.
How to Deter House Flies and Blue Bottle Flies Effectively
Houseflies and blue bottle flies are primarily attracted to decaying organic matter, including faeces, meat, and various animal products. To deter these types of flies, focus on eliminating these attractants:
1. Manage Pet Waste Promptly: If you have pets, diligently clean up any faeces from your garden or litter boxes as soon as possible. Dispose of waste in a sealed bag and place it in an outdoor bin, away from your house. This practice is crucial in minimizing fly attractants around your property.
2. Handle Meat and Animal Products Carefully: Never leave meat, bones, or other animal products like cheese exposed in your kitchen, dining room, or any other living area. This applies to cooked, uncooked, fresh, defrosting meat, and even leftover scraps. Flies have an incredibly keen sense of smell and can detect even trace amounts of meat juices from a considerable distance.
3. Meticulous Cleaning After Meat Preparation: After preparing meat, ensure that no surface is left with even a droplet of meat juice. Thoroughly clean countertops, cutting boards, and any utensils that have come into contact with meat.
4. Proper Waste Disposal: Dispose of meat scraps, bones, animal products, paper towels used for wiping meat, and cloths or sponges heavily soiled with animal fats or juices in sealed plastic bags. Rubbish bins, especially indoor ones, often don’t close completely, allowing odours to escape and attract flies. Ideally, take out rubbish containing meat immediately to an outdoor bin.
5. Surface Cleaning: Even if you use paper towels to wipe up meat juices, always follow up with dish soap to thoroughly clean the surface. This will eliminate lingering scents that attract flies.
6. Defrost Meat Safely: Defrost meat either in your refrigerator (which requires planning ahead) or ensure it’s securely wrapped in a sealed bag (avoid tin foil) or placed in an airtight container. If transferring meat between containers during defrosting, wash your hands, rinse and wash the outside of the bag or container, and wipe down any surfaces that may have come into contact with meat juices.
7. Regular Bin Management: Bins, especially kitchen bins, are major fly attractants. In warm weather, food waste in bins can quickly decompose and emit odours that draw flies. To prevent this, empty your kitchen bin daily, especially at the end of each day, to avoid leaving it indoors overnight.
8. Separate Meat Waste: The biggest culprit in bins for attracting flies is often meat waste. To significantly reduce fly attraction, bag meat waste separately and take it directly outside immediately, instead of placing it in the indoor bin until the end of the day. This simple step can make a significant difference in preventing flies from entering your home.
Keeping Fruit Flies Away: Targeting Vegetation and Fermentation
Deterring fruit flies follows the same principle as deterring house flies and blue bottle flies, but fruit flies are attracted to vegetation and fermentation products rather than meat.
To keep fruit flies out, focus on eliminating sources of fruit, vegetables, and fermentation:
1. Eliminate Fruit and Yeast Attractants: Fruit flies are drawn to anything fruity or yeasty. Yeast is a byproduct of decomposing vegetation, and it’s this scent that particularly attracts fruit flies.
2. Identify Fruit Fly Lures: Beyond just fruit, fruit flies are attracted to a range of items including sauces, alcohol, fruit juice, fruit bowls (especially those containing overripe, bruised, or damaged fruit), and rotting vegetables.
3. Address Kitchen Drains: A less obvious but significant attractant for fruit flies is decaying food particles trapped in drains.
4. Drain Cleaning: Regularly clean your kitchen drains by pouring drain cleaner down the drain of your emptied sink. Drain cleaners are designed to dissolve organic matter, effectively eliminating food debris and helping prevent drain blockages that can also attract flies.
5. Proper Fruit and Vegetable Storage: To prevent fruit flies from being attracted to your home, ensure no fruit or vegetation is left out in the open. Store all fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator. If fruit is overripe, damaged, or starting to rot, discard it immediately in an outdoor bin to avoid attracting fruit flies indoors.
6. Manage Organic Waste Bins: If you use a kitchen bin for organic waste, empty it daily, ideally at the end of the day. Opt for a bin with an airtight, sealable lid to help contain odours from organic matter and prevent them from luring fruit flies.
You Can Achieve a Fly-Reduced Home!
Effectively managing waste and understanding fly attractants are key to solving the problem of flies in your house. By implementing these waste management practices and preventative measures, you can significantly reduce the number of flies entering your home and enjoy a more pleasant, pest-free environment.
If you are experiencing a severe fly infestation in a business setting, remember that professional pest control services like Merlin Environmental specialize in eliminating pests of all kinds, including flies. Contact them to discuss tailored solutions for your business pest problems.
