How to Get Rid of Flies

Flies enjoy the great indoors––it’s warm, there’s often food on offer and the weather isn’t bothersome! They fly in through open doors and windows that don’t have screens and seem to find it hard to fly back out again. Their constant buzzing around is annoying, and even worse, they are potentially unhygienic. If they don’t find their way back outside again, you’ll find lots of fly corpses for the upcoming weeks. Here are some tried and true methods for getting rid of flies in the house.

 

  1. Clean the kitchen thoroughly. Remove all sources of food or prevent access to food that has to be left out. Flies will hang around the kitchen if there is a food source, so put away or thoroughly cover cakes, cookies, cut fruit, any food no longer being immediately used to prepare dishes, etc.
    Wash dishes immediately after use.
    Scrape crumbs and leftovers into the bin or in-sink disposal after eating.
    Teach children to wash up and clean up after using the kitchen for food preparation or eating. All your hard work can be undone by one person failing to attend to the need to keep the kitchen clean.
    Put rotting food outside or in a compost pile. The flies can lay eggs on rotten fruit.
  2. Keep compost buckets covered. All scraps meant for adding to your compost heap or bin must be kept covered when in the kitchen. This is a main attractant of flies and can result in homegrown maggots if flies have access to it.
  3. Keep pet food covered or remove uneaten pet food. Pet food will attract flies wherever the food is left out. Even dry food can attract desperate flies. Always keep pet food dishes clean; particles of food are enough to keep flies happy.
    Praise your dog or cat if it eats flies. Pets can be a useful source of pest control if they’re interested!
  4. Keep all bins covered. This includes the diaper bin or pail. Anything with stinky refuse in it is a siren call to flies. Shut the lid and if it’s stinky enough for you to smell it, dispose of the garbage outside immediately.
    Keep your bins and disposal pails fresh with regular cleaning and disinfecting.