Usually, you don’t want any type of insect in your house, but flies take the cake — sometimes literally, if you’re hosting a birthday party with an infestation. 

House flies, fruit flies, and drain flies are all irritating intruders. Not only do they make eating outdoors almost impossible, but if they manage to fly inside your home, your reputation as a host could be damaged. 

What’s more, they can carry dozens of diseases, which can be dangerous for you, your children, and your guests. 

While some of us may have go-to methods for dealing with flies — fly tape, apple cider vinegar traps, bug zappers — your best bet to keep flies away is to prevent them from coming inside in the first place.

Read on to learn:

  • Why flies are buzzing inside and outside your house
  • Why prevention is the best solution (and how to maintain a clean home)
  • Natural solutions to your existing fly problems
  • Less effective fly-repelling solutions
  • Other answers to common fly questions

Let’s fly right in!

What Are Flies Attracted To?

What a fly is attracted to depends on the type of fly, but all can spread bacteria, so you’ll want to keep all flies out of the house. 

House Flies

House flies are your typical red-eyed insects with a striped back and downward-pointed wings. You can find them feeding on dead animals, animal feces, garbage, sewage, and basically any decaying organic matter. 

After stepping in those disturbing materials, they swoop in to land with grimy legs on food you worked hard to prepare for your family and guests. 

Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are tinier than house flies but no less annoying. These flies lay eggs near or in fruit or other sugary organic matter. They prefer ripe or rotten fruit, and while that might be a step up from animal waste, fruit flies can still transmit pathogens depending on where they settle. 

Drain Flies

Hence their name, drain flies are found in tubs, sinks, air conditioners, and anywhere with standing water. These gray, heart-shaped flies aren’t known to transmit diseases, but they can also spread bacteria because of their meal choice of organic remains throughout the home. 

Prevention is the Best Solution to Keep Flies Out of Your House

You may be tempted to buy a citronella candle or essential oils to get rid of your fly problem, which we’ll talk about later in this article. 

But the best defense against an annoying army of flies is to prevent them from wanting to come inside your home to begin with. There’s power in taking out the source of your pest problem.

The best way to keep flies away is to clean your home of spilled food and drinks, pet waste, and neglected trash cans to prevent all types of insects from invading, including ants and roaches. When targeting flies, aim for a deep clean of the kitchen and bathrooms, where organic matter builds up. 

Maintaining a clean house will also boost your mental state as you won’t have to live among unsightly dirt and embarrassing smells. Try to do a deep clean of your entire house at least twice a year, and those flies will declare your home a desert.

If you have a severe fly infestation, you may want to call a professional pest control service. But that’s okay! You still have your chance to maintain a clean home after they remedy the infestation. 

Natural Ways to Keep Flies Away

If you find that you still have a fly problem even though you maintain a decently clean home, there are some natural ways to keep flies away. The following tips don’t involve the use of chemicals, which you’ll want to avoid to prevent causing other health problems. 

Keep in mind, though, that these solutions only help to reduce your fly problem, not eliminate it. Removing the source is the only way to keep flies from coming back.

Here’s what to use to keep flies away:

  • Electric fan:
    If you need to keep any windows or doors open, you can point a standing fan toward the opening to keep flies from coming inside. Despite being adept at flying, the pests won’t be able to withstand the flow of air.

    For when you host an outdoor meal, invest in a fly fan as a fly deterrent. These fans are designed to swing their soft blades above your food, and they won’t hurt your hands if you accidentally touch them. 
  • Natural scents:
    There are a variety of aromas that are said to keep flies away. You can try them out for yourself as a natural fly repellent by placing the sources to these scents in areas where flies loiter.

    Plus, while flies and other insects might avoid them, you and your guests will most likely find these scents appealing.

    You might even invent an effective fly-repelling concoction by experimenting with multiple scents you like.

    Here are some examples of what smells flies hate:
    • Plants: Try basil, bay laurel, lavender, lemon balm, marigold, mint, or wormwood, among others.
    • Citrus: Make sure to use the peels of fruits, as the sugar from the fruit itself may attract flies.
    • Essential oils: Lavender, eucalyptus, and lemongrass are all effective essential oil fly repellents.
    • Citronella candles: These candles smell nice and can be used outside, but you may need several to be effective.
    • Cayenne pepper: Create a homemade fly repellent by mixing one cup of water and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a spray bottle.
    • Cloves and cinnamon: Wrap cloves or cinnamon sticks with citrus peels to amplify the fly-repelling smell. 
  • Food tents:
    When eating outside, use a mesh food tent to cover food that is vulnerable to grubby flies. These tents are also helpful if you’re currently struggling with an indoor fly infestation.

    Both you and the flies are hungry, but only you deserve the food you prepared!
  • Flytrap:
    Take a more offensive approach and trap flies with a homemade or non-toxic store-bought fly trap.

    To make your own home remedy for flies, fill a cup or jar with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and some dish soap. The sweet scent attracts flies, while the soap traps them. You can also try covering the opening of the jar with plastic wrap and poke tiny holes to let flies in — but not out. In the same way that flies make their way into your home but never back outside, they just aren’t smart enough to leave the hole they came in from.

    These are most effective for getting rid of repeat fly offenders but aren’t the best for preventing the next generation if they’ve already laid eggs.

Less Effective Fly-Repelling Solutions

Other solutions exist to repel or kill flies, but these have questionable effectiveness or cause other problems.

We list the scientifically unproven solutions in this section in case you reach a desperate level of flies in and around your home. At that point, though, it’s probably best to call pest control, as any effectiveness that people claim from these tricks to keep flies away is probably a placebo.

We also list solutions that we don’t recommend below because of their tendency to cause other problems. 

Questionably Effective Fly Repellents 

  • Irish Spring soap and flies:
    Some people claim that you can hang a bar of Irish Spring soap to repel flies. While this trick isn’t backed by scientific evidence, it doesn’t hurt to try.
  • Water bags:
    Hanging bags of water around your patio has been said to drive flies away, though the reason why varies. Some say flies see the water bags as the surface of a body of water, that the bugs’ enlarged reflection scares them off, or that the water’s ability to refract light confuses flies. 
  • Pennies or tin foil in a cup of water:
    In the same vein as hanging bags of water, some say that adding pennies or tin foil flakes to a clear cup of water can emulate the eyes of a bigger bug. 
  • LED and yellow light bulbs:
    According to a 2016 study, LED bulbs were shown to attract flies less than regular bulbs. Yellow bulbs are also less attractive to flies and other insects than regular white bulbs.

    Even so, a less attractive bulb isn’t the same as a repellent bulb. You may have to purchase many bulbs for this method to have an impact on your fly problem.

Fly Solutions That Cause Other Problems

  • Bug zappers:
    Bug zappers are very effective, but while you will keep flies away from the patio, you will also kill moths and other important pollinators that benefit the local ecosystem.

They can also be dangerous to humans because insects may contain diseases, and bug zappers destroy insects into a mist. The mist carries bacteria and viruses several feet away from the zapper unless there’s a tray to catch insect debris, so anyone near the device is at risk. 

  • Flypaper:
    Flypaper, or pest strips, are fairly effective at trapping flies indoors, but some can be toxic to humans and pets over a long period.

    As a DIY fly repellent, you can try making flypaper at home, though it may take a considerable amount of time, effort, and materials.

    And, as a hanging ornament of dead flies, flypaper is an unattractive addition to your home.
  • Fly bait:
    Like any other pest poison, fly bait lures in flies and kills them off after feeding. Fly bait often contains methomyl, which is classified as highly to moderately toxic to people by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Other Considerations

In this section, we’ll address some more questions you may have about how to best handle a fly problem.

How often do I have to use fly repellents?

Flies may dislike certain smells, making them natural repellents, but once the source of those smells goes away, the problem may resurface. We recommend keeping a consistent presence of these smells as repellents in your kitchen and dining areas to deter flies.

Replace citrus peels after their strong smell starts to weaken, and maintain your plants with enough sunlight and watering. Remember, a poorly cared for plant that starts to rot will attract new flies!

You may also need to increase the number of natural repellents depending on how bad your fly problem is. 

How do I know when I have a fly infestation?

You may have a fly infestation if you regularly see flies throughout or outside your house, if you find clusters of dark spots (fly feces), or if you find maggots (the larval stage of flies). 

As we’ve said a couple of times before, a true fly infestation warrants a call to a professional pest control service.

Find a pest control service in your region with this directory.

What else can I do to prevent flies in my house?

Don’t allow produce to get overripe; wipe down surfaces in your kitchen and dining areas; and regularly clean sinks, tubs, drains, and garbage cans. 

Fly-nal Thoughts

Remember that most of the solutions for how to keep flies away in this article can add up in terms of time and money.

As with most recurring problems, you’ll greatly benefit from attacking your fly problem at the source. That means setting up consistent cleaning habits. The goal is to maintain a clean living space that limits the food source for any type of fly.

Not only will keeping your home clean discourage flies and other pests from setting up camp in your residence, but it will give you the ability to host future gatherings and boost your confidence as a homeowner.