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How to Get Rid of Flies
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We know how it goes. You’ve just settled into your warm, comfy bed and as you begin drifting off into a peacefull slumber you’re suddenly dive-bombed… BZZT! Now you’ve got to get up, turn on the light and kung-fu battle a kamikaze fly before you can go to sleep… great. This article will have you playing midnight-fly-assassin much less frequently.
1. Eliminate the sources of the fly infestation
All fly infestations can be traced back to a source of unprotected organic material. The usual culprits are improperly handled garbage, animal droppings and dead animals. There are tons of different species, all of whom enjoy feasting on different things, but their preferred main courses are not so diverse that we need to immediately differentiate them unless you are unable to remove all of the possible food sources as outlined in this article.
Fly-food and breeding grounds
The key to reducing any fly population is to identify and eradicate the feeding and breeding grounds and as luck has it, flies lay their eggs in their food. Follow along as I walk you through some of the most common attractants and explain what you can do about them.
Garbage and decaying organic matter
Many filth fly infestations are the result of improperly handled human wastes. Perform a thorough inspection of every nearby area that collects organic waste such as garbage cans, dumpsters, and compost heaps. Flies will feed and breed in any of these places assuming the waste is moist and accessible. Make sure all garbage is bagged and stored in garbage cans with tightly-fitting lids secured to the cans. In the case of metal trash cans, a pair of bungee cords can be threaded through the handles and over the lid to keep it secure. Dumpster’s should have hinged lids that are kept closed and compost heaps should be screened off or contained in tubs. Look around for loose organic materials and spills.
Inside of your home, organic waste should be drained and wrapped in newspaper prior to throwing into the trash. The paper will help to dry out the waste - flies can’t breed in dry waste. Make sure your trash can has a tightly fitting lid, and tie the bag completely shut before transferring to an outside can for trash pickup. If you have flies breeding in your drains, a commercial drain cleaner will remove the organic film that they are breeding in.
Animal waste
There’s nothing flies seem to like more than a warm log straight from your dog… Any animal waste should be picked up and immediately buried or flushed down the toilet.
Decaying flesh
Dead and decaying animal flesh can also breed flies - not to mention the horrible smell and appearance. Search around for dead birds, rodents, squirrels, and road kill. If you locate an unfortunate critter, use a shovel to move it and bury it at least three feet deep to keep any flies that spawn from it from reaching the surface.
Other attractants
Some varieties of flies feed on the blood of living creatures. These are a little harder to battle since you can’t completely eliminate their food source (you). Others lay eggs in other insects and earth worms. These types of flies are better battled with traps and physical barriers like screens and netting.
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I did tried the ziplock bag and pennies this weekend. I have a horse trailer with full LQ. The flys were very bad this weekend while I was camping. I put the baggie with pennies above the door of the LQ. NOT ONE FLY came in the trailer. The horse trailer part had many. Not sure why it works but it does!!!!!!!
I will tell you what kills flies almost instantly…WINDEX!!!!!
I use the yellow antibact. kind of Windex. I spray them and they FALL RIGHT THERE!!!!
I have no idea why this works, but if I have nothing around, I grab the windex, spray them and they die. TRY IT!!!!
I followed a lot of tips on this page and some of the traps seemed to work, but it was never enough. Also, all that fly paper and bowls of dish soap and sugar filled with dead flies was ugly and disgusting to have around. Trying to impress friends is a lot easier when they aren’t constantly reminded of your horrendous infestation.
My solution? BUY A PITCHER PLANT!!!
Pitcher Plants work like a liquid trap. They entice the flies (all kinds, big small, fruit, house…) to enter and then they get trapped in the liquid and slowly digested. Within ONE NIGHT of owning the plant we were suddenly missing 90%+ of our pest problem. The plant is also attractive and a nice conversation piece you can be proud of.
Pitcher plants are not expensive (mine was less than $10 and will continue working and living for years) They are almost zero maintenance needing no fertilizer, a small pot, and minimal watering. The best part, they can be found almost anywhere! I found mine in the flowers section of my local Meijer! (Wal-Mart carries them too)
P.S. Don’t waste your time or money on the Venus Fly Traps (usually located near the Pitcher Plants). They can only catch one fly at a time in their “mouths” and sometimes the trip hairs are not sensitive enough for fruit flies. Pitcher Plants on the other hand will keep on filling up no matter what crawls in there.
P.P.S. Cat’s are not too much of a problem. Our felines showed little interest in the plant.
I have read here about people with “infestations” of flies and having to kill “20 to 30″ a day. That is not an infestation!!! I live in southern Spain and at this time of the year we will have literally hundreds of flies in the house. After a long hot, dry summer we will get a few days of quite heavy rain, but it the weather is till hot. The fly population just seems to explode at this time and we use a combination of probably all of the methods mentioned on this blog. The most effective immediately is fly spray. However, a really good way of preventing them comeing into your home is to install a misting system that runs around the perimeter of the house. This creates a curtain of fine spray through which the flies will not venture. It is not cheap but it is definitely the most effective system I have found.
Fill a ziplock bag with water and 5 or 6 pennies and hang it in the problem area. In my case it was a particular window in my home. It had a slight but significant passage way for insects.Every since I have done that, it has kept flies and wasps away. Some say, that wasps and flies mistake the bag for some sort of other insect nest and are threatened by this.
Close the Ziplock bag… it really works to keep us pests away!
I heard that a plastic shopping bag, filled with water and a coin in the bottom resemble a hornets nest. I guess hornets are a predator to the fly?
We live behind a Black Angus Farm. Needless to say, we have FLIES!! Some days are worse than others like very HOT days. We have been using those STINKY, SMELLY, GAWD AWFUL traps with the bait. They really do work and we have them in almost every tree on our peramiter of property. We also have them hanging just by the patio which really help but if you get just right and get a whiff of it, you gag. It really smells like something dead that is rotting.
the plastic bag trick DOES work to keep them out of the house. Sandwich size zip-lock half full of water tacked to the outer door frame.
With all of this we STILL get them however and some days we just cannot even eat out there even though we LOVE our patio and being outside.
Would anyone suggest a zapper? If so, what brand/type…
Thanks….signed bugged in Idaho
I have tried everything the only thing that seems to work the best is lime not the fruit but powered subtance that is purchased @ farm supply & hard ware stores.Just throw it in the yard it looks kinda weird cause your yard has a white powder covering it but it keeps the flies fleas&ticks away!!try it
so it never says are the bags open or closed and if closed like you assume then how do the flys get in