Common house flies are irritating buzzing flies and generally are present all over our houses and are also the carriers of pathogenic bacteria, which are seen on their tiny body hair called tarsi, and these bacteria are “collected” from all the contaminated place3s, that they visit, such as fecal matter, garbage disposal sites, rotten foods etc. and transmit these bacteria to your body, by sitting on the open foods causing diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, diarrhea, and cholera.
The best way to keep safeguard against these diseases is to keep your house clean and foods covered. Decaying organic filth like feces and rotting foods, meat etc. are what attract house flies. Fruit flies and drain flies too are a menace. Fruit flies are attracted by sugary things like overripe fruit, spilled soda, alcohol etc. Drain flies seek moist climates and organic materials and lay their eggs in the drains
Hence, keeping your house, drains etc. clean and dry are super important. Besides, here are few natural home remedies to get rid of these irritating flies.
1. Make Flypaper Strips at Home to Catch Flies
The market is flooded with flypapers, sometimes also called fly ribbons, a pest control device. These are made of paper coated with a fragrant, sticky and often poisonous substance which traps flies and other flying insects. The poisonous substance used in these flypapers can be toxic to humans and animals too.
2. Use Plastic Water Bags to Keep Away Flies
You just need a clear plastic bag filled with water and hang this bag at your outdoor entrances, flies will not be able to enter your house. There are at least two reasons – One is that the flies are not able to see the water bag as a water bag. Due to their structure of eyes, clear water filled bags are seen as something resembling a spider’s web by the flies. As such, they don’t come near such thing. The other reason states that the reflection of water is enough to disorient the flies and to create some unexplainable illusion to them.
3. Try Apple Cider Vinegar to Trap Fruit Flies
This home remedy is particularly good for eliminating fruit flies because they get attracted to smell of anything which ferments. Heat the apple cider vinegar in a microwave oven or heat it in a pan over your gas burner. Pour this in a jar with lid, which has holes in the lid. Let it be there in a place where there are many flies for a day. Flies will get attracted to the smell of vinegar and enter the jar through the holes. Once inside, they get trapped. Flies can’t figure it out that they can even fly out from the same hole that worked as their entrance.
4. Homemade Flies Repellent with Lavender Oil
Lavender oil is popular as a nerve calming oil and as an essential oil, but few people know about its excellent insect repelling properties, it is widely used to protect clothes from moths and other insects.
5. Use Cloves to Repel Flies
Cloves are pleasantly aromatic for us but are not liked by flies. They cannot stand the scent of this spice that is extensively used for culinary purposes. Cloves are particularly effective in repelling house flies. In this remedy for flies elimination, cloves are used with lemon, yet another smell that flies are not fond of.
Cut the lemons into halves., now insert 6-12 cloves into each of the lemon half. Poke with the pointed part of the clove so that the bud remains upwards. It makes an aromatic and beautiful looking centerpiece for your table as well.
6. Make Lemongrass Spray to Keep Away Flies
This is one remedy that will not only keep flies away from your house but will also keep your home refreshingly aromatic. Pour 10-12 drops of lemongrass essential oil into your spray bottle and mix hot water over this oil, shake well to mix both the ingredients. Now spray this all along your doorways and windows or any other space from where flies enter your house.
7. Basil and Other Herbal Plants to Get Rid of Flies
Basil is very beneficial for us but flies cannot stand it’s fragrance. You can plant basil in a pot near your doorways to keep away the flies. Not only will this stops flies from entering your house but will also make the surrounding environment healthy as basil is a strong anti-bacterial and anti-viral herb. Instead of Basil, you can also use, Lavender, Bay Leaf, Mint, Rue, Wormwood and Marigold
8. Milk-Sugar-Pepper Trap for Fruit Flies
If you are bothered a lot by fruit flies, here’s an age old recipe to make a sugary milky trap for them. This method has been used in England since ancient times. As sugary substance does attract fruit flies, it seems to be used in this milk recipe for trapping flies.
Milk- ½ liter
Sugar- ¼ cup
Ground black pepper- 4 tbsp
Directions:
Pour the milk in a saucepan. Add sugar and pepper to the milk. Now let the solution simmer for 10-15 minutes. Now take some shallow dishes like soup plates and pour some of this milk solution in each of them. Place these dishes all around your house, especially where flies come most of the times. Flies will get attracted to this solution and when they land on it, will suffocate and drown.
9. Use Camphor to Repel Flies
Camphor has been traditionally used in India to purify the surrounding environment as it has strong anti-bacterial, anti-viral and insect repellent properties. It is commercially available in form of small tablets.Take 2 camphor tablets and place it on a warm surface. You may use your mosquito repellent device or use a heat diffuser or you may simply heat up a metal plate and place the camphor tablets on it. The flies will go away due to the smell given out by camphor.
By: Archa Dave
