Fly season! I hate it so much. I live out in the country and we have so many flies! I also have 4 kids who never remember to shut the doors so the flies think that my house is fair game. I can’t say I help matters any because a few weeks ago I had made my husband dinner and left it on the counter, without thinking I left it under covered and when he got home an hour later it was covered in fly eggs. I was so grossed out. I had to figure out a way to get these nasty things out of my house, because lets be honest getting rid of flies is easier then teaching my kids to keep the doors shut. I’m joking…sorta. I also wanted to figure out a way to make my own traps because going and buying new traps all the time is a huge pain. So wanna know how I trapped my flies?
Instructions
- Fill Bottle/container with Sugar substance of choice, Raw meat, vinegar & water
- Stir/Shake
- Cut corner of baggie
- Put baggie over jar/container
- Secure lid
- Watch your flies disappear
Ingredients
1. A container of some kind
Choose one of the following
- Mason jar
- Pop bottle
- Juice container
- Etc.
2. Sugar substance
Choose one of the following
- 2 TBS Maple syrup
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 2 TBS Honey
3. Raw meat
Shrimp seems to work the best but any meat you have on hand will work.
4. Water
Fill the container the rest of the way up with water.
5. Vinegar
Apple cider, white Etc.
Notes
The cool thing about trapping flies is that you don’t need specific supplies. I wanted to make a point to show you that you can make a trap with 5 simple ingredients. There are different ways to construct it but they accomplish the same thing. This trap will take a couple days to start working. I was frustrated at first because it did not seem to be working. By day 3 it had caught most of the flies in my house. Below I will show you the way I have used it and how to put it together.
Constructing your fly trap
There are different ways to construct your fly trap but the way I do it is shown below.
What Flies will my trap catch?
This kind of fly trap will catch house flies, drain flies, gnats, fruit flies, cluster flies, deer flies, horse flies, & blow flies.
Why a homemade trap?
As I mentioned above I started making homemade fly traps because I was sick of always buying new ones, but there are a few more reasons that you might also want to make your own fly trap as well.
1. Money
So depending on the scale of your fly problem you will spend a lot of money on fly traps. You could spend $5-$10 on a single fly trap. And what if you need multiple traps in different areas? Plus you will also need to keep replacing them. With the homemade trap your supplies are pretty close to free.
2. Safety
As I said I have 4 young kids. I try my best to have everything as safe as possible around my house. I don’t clean with chemicals. I actually am able to kill 99% of the germs in my house with just water! (Check out my article if you wanna know how that is possible) and I do my best to keep chemicals and toxins out of my house as much as possible. So when I was looking into fly traps I was reading the labels and decided I did not want them in my house.They all had warning labels and said that you must wash really well if it touches you and told you how to flush it out of your body if you ingested it. I was just not willing to bring more unwanted chemicals into my house.
3. Convenience
Again, I have 4 kids! So I really don’t like running to the store all the time. So if I can make traps quick as home with supplies I already have I don’t have to think about running to the store to buy a trap!
How does this trap work?
If you are anything like me you want to not only know that this trap will work but you also want to know how it works.
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Flies are attracted to sugar
You already know that I hate flies. But this was crazy interesting to me. Flies sensitivity to sugar is 10 million times more than a humans. WHAT?! And I thought I liked sugar! So basically it does not matter where the flies are in your house they will eventually be drawn to the sugar.
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Flies have bad eye sight
Their great sense of smell must be there to make up for their eye sight. Just for comparison if a human as perfect vision we all know they have 20/20 vision. A flies vision is 20/1200. So once they get into the container they can’t see well enough to get out.
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They drown/get stuck
And even if they could see enough to get out, its pretty much a lost cause because they will either get stuck in the sticky sugar substance or drown in the liquid.
So long story short…
They smell the sugar, they can’t resist the sugar, and then they get stuck in it and die. Oh, you’re probably wondering what’s up with the raw meat huh? Well flies are also attracted to raw meat because they like to lay their eggs in it. The meat provides food for the larvae to grow. Nasty huh?
What do flies like to eat?
This question is pretty self explanatory. If you have a fly problem you most likely already know the answer to this. Flies are nasty! They love rotting meat, food that is going bad, human feces Etc. Pretty much anything rotting and disgusting they love.
What kind of fly bait works best?
As I mentioned the trap above will work for all flies. But…
- Sugar/meat works best for house flies
- Vinegar/fruit works best for fruit flies.
How to keep flies away?
Okay now that you have killed all the flies in your house what about the millions more outside? (I hate to be the wet blanket but unfortunately there are lots more flies out there to deal with) is there ways to discourage the flies from hanging around your house? Well I’m glad you asked! I am going to share a whole list of things with you that flies hate! The coolest part about this list is that they are all natural AND not totally disgusting. Because lets me real who wants wants a nasty trap on their back patio when they are trying to entertain? Okay, I will stop blabbering and get on with the list.
5 natural ways to detour flies from your home
1. Plants
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Sweet Basil
I know this sounds strange since I just said that flies love sweet stuff. But the smell of sweet basil is not sweet and the flies hate it. This is a win-win! Herbs are great to plant close to the house so that when you are cooking you can walk out the door and grab some. Basil does great in pots. So maybe try planting some basil on your patio!
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Lavender
So good! Well for you. Flies hate the smell of lavender. Lavender is so pretty and again has so many uses. Plant it near your house and reap the benefits of the pretty plant, the yummy smell and use it in the kitchen!
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Rosemary
I feel like a bit of a broken record here but you get the idea! Plant, detour flies, use in the kitchen!
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Mint
Mint has something in it called mentha. Mentha has a very potent smell that the flies hate.
2. Essential oils
There are multiple different ways you can use essential oils to detour the flies.
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Outdoor Spray
This spray is not the greatest smelling so I would use this outside. You could spray it on the outside of your doors or on patio railings etc. The smell is not awful I just don’t think you want to spray it on your body.
- 1 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoons oil
- 1 Tablespoon Dish Soap
- 10 drops of essential oil of your choice from list below
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A rub
Who else almost loses their mind when there is that one single fly that will not leave you alone? It just keeps buzzing and buzzing around your head? Apply this rub and that little sucker just might leave you alone! All you need is…
- carrier oil (coconut oil, olive oil etc.)
- Oil of choice from the list below
Rub it on and live in peace!
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Defuse
If you have a difuser, just put a mixture off 2-3 oils from the list below and diffuse away.
Essential oils that flies hate
- Basil Oil
- Citronella Oil
- Clove Oil
- Eucalyptus Oil
- Geranium Oil
- Lavender Oil
- Lemongrass Oil
- Peppermint Oil
- Tea Tree oil
3. Lemon & cloves
This idea would work great for a dinner party outside. Or even inside for that matter. The nice thing about this idea is that your fly repel-ant can actually look cute and smell good. All you do is cut a lemon in half and stuff whole cloves in it. Set your lemons in a cute dish and it can be part of your decor. You will want to set them out about 30 minutes before you want to use your space so that the bugs will pick up the scent and scatter. I Would start with a few cloves per lemon and work your way up. There is no need wasting cloves if a few will do the trick.
4. Water bag
As we talked about flies have terrible eyesight. They do however have 3,000 lenses per eye, so they can’t see well but they can detect movement and light. For this method you will simply fill a bag full of water and hang it from your outside doorway. The sun will reflect in all directions from the bag and will throw the flies out of whack. Obviously, this only works when it is light outside.
5. Citrus fruit peels
This method only works for house flies, not fruit flies. Fruit flies will be attracted to the fruit. With this method you will just save your fruit peels and wrap them in a cheese cloth. I would use this method only outside. Maybe on your deck or patio. And again, if you have a fruit fly problem this will not work for you.
My fly trap requirements
As I said I have a lot of flies around and in my house. This year has been particularly bad and I was sick and tired of them. Usually, I can use a fly swatter and I can get through fly season. But then I decided that there was no point in living with these nasty things longer then I needed to so I went to work researching and building fly traps. When I started out I had 4 things that my trap needed to do…
- Catch all the flies
- Not look or smell horrible
- Make something with materials I already had on hand
- Be natural and non toxic
I know those are pretty high standards but hey I was determined.
Conclusion
After the fly infestation at my house this year I knew I had to find a solution. After my research I found that flies love sugar and can’t say no. So with a few household supplies I was able to catch those buzzing little creatures. I also, was able to find a whole lot of things I can do to help keep the flies at bay in future years. It is so exciting to me when I find things that will not only help fix a problem but looks pretty and provides me food as well.