I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that flies are a species of pests from hell. They don’t usually bite you or affect you much, really, but they are a constant buzzing presence around you that you can’t help but feel like swatting. But, how to keep flies under control, especially inside your home and outside in your backyard?
The fact is that there are so many species of flies that even scientists have not been able to identify all of them yet. Nonetheless, control their populations you must. Because, even though these pests don’t bite you or directly harm you, they are still terrible for the health and hygiene of your house!
In this article, I will thoroughly explain everything you need to understand about why flies are inside your home in the first place and what all you can do to control their population and prevent them from reentering your house and infesting it. So, keep reading!
Are houseflies harmful to human beings?
Houseflies are known to spread a variety of viruses and bacteria that can be harmful to human beings. They can cause diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, and tuberculosis.
In addition, they also contaminate food with their feces, which can lead to food poisoning.
House flies can also cause cholera and E. coli infections because of the bacteria they carry around. In fact, a single housefly can deposit 1 million bacteria on food in just 30 seconds! That’s why it’s so very important to keep them under control using pest control methods.
While houseflies may not be directly harmful to human beings, they can spread disease. In addition, flies can be a nuisance as they are attracted to food and garbage. There are many ways to control flies, including using pest control products and practices.
What do you need to know about flies being born and appearing in your house or your backyard?
Flies are a common nuisance and can be difficult to get rid of. Female flies lay up to 900 eggs during their lifetime, so it is not at all surprising to notice an exponential growth of the population of flies around you just after you spot a few!
The warmer weather means that flies will start to mature and lay eggs. These eggs will hatch into larvae, which will turn into adult flies in a few days.
These new flies will then search for food and mates, multiplying the fly population in the meantime. It is important to take simple preventative steps and measures against flies during this time of year.
In order to get rid of flies in your house or backyard, you need to know where they are originating from and what kind of repellents work best. Flies can be born from organic or decaying material, so it’s important to take care of any messes that might attract them.
Don’t worry! I will be covering these aspects of controlling fly populations in detail further ahead in the article!
What are the environmental conditions that typically attract or invite flies into your living environment?
Houseflies are attracted to a variety of different things, but there are a few main reasons why they might be drawn to your living environment.
One reason is that they are looking for a place to lay their eggs. Houseflies will typically lay their eggs in material that is decomposing or moist.
They are also attracted to food and garbage. Houseflies are very common in the summertime as they thrive in warm, humid environments.
You can usually find them around garbage cans, near compost piles, or near pet food that has an abundance of organic matter or decaying matter for them to draw sustenance from.
Another one of the most common reasons that house flies and other such species invade your living environment is because of the presence of light.
Flies are attracted to lights, specifically nighttime lights. Put all of these factors together in your living environment, and these pests will have an invitation to a lavish existence in it!
What attracts flies to your backyard?
Adult house flies are attracted to areas where they can lay eggs. This means that they are drawn to places like compost piles, farms, roadkill, trash bins, and other areas where there is organic matter. The fly’s eggs hatch and the larvae feed on the organic matter.
We generally keep our garbage bins in the backyard or by our garages to make it easier for the garbage collection agency to pick them up.
While there’s nothing wrong with that practice, it is our responsibility to ensure that we dispose of the garbage and place it in a manner that all the organic dirt and actual garbage stays inaccessible to the air.
This is because, ultimately, that access is what will invite flies to swarm around your backyard, in your garden, or wherever you choose to place your garbage cans!
What are the threats that you must face if you have an outdoor fly infestation around your home?
Flies can also be a nuisance. They are attracted to food, and they can contaminate it with their feces. In addition, flies can spread diseases like tuberculosis, dysentery, food poisoning, and typhoid, all of which are severe diseases that could cause damage to your long-term health.
In fact, flies can not only be a nuisance when they’re around, but they can also bite. This is especially troublesome during the summer months when people are outside more and trying to enjoy the weather. That said, it is rare for them to bite humans, yet not unheard of!
How can you check for outdoor flies?
In order to check for outdoor flies, you’ll want to look for potential sources of food and sustenance and try to find where the flies are laying eggs. You can do this by looking for moist, shady areas near your home.
For example, spilled alcohol, food spills, dirty surfaces, pet waste, and sticky surfaces from drink spills can all be magnets for flies.
Additionally, make sure to keep your property clean and free of garbage and debris that could attract flies. If you take care of the sources of attraction, you can help keep the fly population under control.
Inspecting one’s home for possible cracks in doorways and holes in screens is the first step to preventing flies from entering.
Further, checking eaves, porch ceilings, and rooflines can help identify potential entry points for the pests. If any damage is found, it should be repaired immediately.
How to keep flies under control both inside and outside, using natural remedies?
Now, while many of these methods are similar to each other, their effectiveness is much higher when you’re dealing with flies inside your home. This is because of the limited space available to them as compared to your backyard!
Hanging water bags on your porch
Although the idea of hanging water bags around your porch to keep flies under control may look funny, it is actually an effective method of pest control.
By using this method, you can reduce the number of flies in your home without having to use harsh chemicals or pesticides. The way this works is by disorienting individual flies by reflecting the light at their eyes.
Hanging water bags on your porch, however, is not the best way to control flies. While it may work on a few flies, it will not have any impact on the overall population of flies in the area.
Make sure your environment is breezy with the help of a fan.
Think about it this way. Flies aren’t particularly strong insects in the real world.
Therefore, if you direct a strong breeze toward them and away from your environment, whether inside your house or outside, flies simply won’t be able to fight it. Therefore, they are bound to scatter and leave you in peace.
Use citronella candlesticks.
Citronella has been shown to be a fantastic fly and mosquito repellant. The only issue is its efficacy with respect to the area around it.
Citronella candlesticks are unlikely to help you stave outdoor flies because the area around them is simply too large. In a room, however, lighting a few citronella candlesticks is bound to be more effective, albeit expensive!
Make DIY fly traps.
Making your own fly traps can be an effective method to control small fly populations in your house or even outside it. One way to make a fly trap is to use sugar and water along with a cone and a jar. What you need to do is make a sugar-water solution and pour it into a jar.
Then, you need to make a cone with a piece of paper and cut off the narrow tip to make a funnel.
Place this cone into the solution with just the tip jutting out of the water. This will cause flies to enter in search of the sugar water and then make it difficult for them to escape the cone!
Prefer yellow light bulbs over blue ones.
Blue light bulbs at night generally attract flies toward them. However, there is plenty of research to show that yellow is a fantastic color for light bulbs since it also doubles up as a fly repellant.
Therefore, use light bulbs on your porch and inside your house near the windows to repel these pests.
Keep your garbage cans clean.
As I said, dirty garbage cans are the number one breeding ground for flies.
Therefore, in order to keep these pests away for good and prevent them from entering your surroundings in the first place, you must routinely clean your garbage cans and ensure that you dispose of your garbage in a hygienic manner!
Swat flies with an electronic zapper or manually.
Feeling icky? I don’t blame you. But the satisfaction of catching that one fly that has been buzzing around you for the past hour with a swatting paddle can be extremely satisfying.
Alternatively, you can also use an electronic fly zapper that uses blue lights to attract the flies to it and then zaps them with an electric current.
When do you need to call in a professional pest control company to handle a fly infestation in or around your house?
The fact is that full-fledged fly infestations are quite rare within houses. Typically, simple methods that enforce cleanliness and hygiene in or around your house are enough to keep flies at bay.
But if you ever feel like the fly population has increased exponentially around you, it might be time to call a professional pest control person to deal with these nuisance pests!
How to prevent flies from returning to your house or your backyard?
There are a few key things you can do to help prevent flies from returning to your house or backyard. First and foremost, be sure to keep your living and outdoor spaces clean and tidy.
Make sure to properly store food and garbage, and take out the trash regularly. Additionally, make sure that there is no standing water or moist environments where flies can breed.
Further, let spiders have at them. Unless spider webs stretch across an area you’ll walk through or reach into, leave them be. Hungry arachnids will devour any flies they can snare.
You can also plant fly-repelling herbs around your patio or barbecue area. These include basil, lavender, and mint. You can also use screens on your windows that allow the flow of air through your house without allowing insects through!
What are organophosphate compounds or pyrethrins in pest control chemicals or insecticides for house flies?
Organophosphate compounds and pyrethrins are two of the most common chemicals used in fly pest control. They work by interfering with the fly’s nervous system, causing paralysis and eventually death.
Pyrethrins are a class of organic compounds that are the main active ingredient in fly sprays. Pyrethroids are a class of insecticides that includes both synthetic and natural compounds.
Synthetic pyrethroids are often more potent and longer-lasting than natural ones, but they also tend to be more expensive.
Conclusion
Now that you have gotten to the end of this article, I’d say you are pretty well equipped to control the flies that enter your living space and around your house!
However, at the risk of being repetitive, bear in mind that the best way to deter flies is to simply keep your surroundings clean and free of decaying garbage or any similar organic material around your house!