How To Get Rid Of Flies In The Backyard?

Are you a victim of backyard housefly infestation? Most homeowners will answer yes to the question but do nothing about it with the notion that it’s”normal” to have them around. But, the nuisance flies are neither cool nor safe around you, especially when they’re in large swarms.

Besides being irritant, they’re very good at food poisoning, transmitting diseases, inflicting bites, and speeding up the decay process of important stuff like wood.

For example, they may deny you an outdoor activity/recreation. Worse still, they can sneak into your home and cause even more irritation, food poisoning, and other damages. That doesn’t, however, mean that they’re completely useless in the ecosystem.

Be that as it may, there’s more need to shuck off than keep these insects around you and your home. And while there are myriads of suggested ways to do so, only a few work effectively. We took special pains in a mission to find fruitful ways to get rid of houseflies around your home.

Why Do I Have So Many Houseflies In My Yard?

Houseflies stay in places they find conducive for feeding and or breeding. For example, they’re generally attracted to stuff that we consider foul-smelling, like animal feces, garbage, food waste, and rotting matter, among others.

They can also breed in the areas where they feed, provided there’s sufficient moisture. Likewise, darkness facilitates their breeding.

If such conditions are present in your backyard, you must be experiencing these insects in swarms. What’s more, the situation often gets worse in summer. While the insects usually breed from Spring to Fall, the process (breeding) peaks in Summer when the conditions are optimum.

Most people will find it almost impossible to get rid of houseflies during mid Summer.

How Do Houseflies Breed?

Once there’s a breeding ground with moisture and some heat, female houseflies will lay eggs. The eggs hatch fast, and even faster during summer. One female housefly can lay up to around 500 (or even more) eggs in two to three days.

The eggs hatch into larvae, also known as maggots, within 8 to 20 hours only. The magots feed on immediate material upon which they hatch, fast-growing into pupal, which also take only 2-5 days to grow into an adult.

Adult houseflies live for 15-21 days, though others may live up to a whopping two months.

How To Get Rid Of Houseflies Naturally

Using natural remedies is the best way to get rid of houseflies, regardless of the species. We describe some of the most effective methods below.

1. Trap Them Naturally

You can trap houseflies using natural things they’re usually attracted to every day. For example, you can make a mixture of dish soap and vinegar to attract them inside a tall glass into which they sink and die. To do so, add a few drops of dish soap to around two inches of vinegar inside a tall vessel (like glass).

Then, cover the vessel’s mouth using a sheet of plastic on which small holes (enough to let in a housefly) are poked, and leave it outside in an area far from your resting spot. Houseflies will get attracted to the vinegar, causing them to enter the glass. Unfortunately, they’ll sink.

Likewise, you can make the flytrap using sugar and water. Simply mix a quarter-cup of sugar with a cup of water in a tall jar. Then, measure the distance from the solution’s surface to the jar’s top and make a cone with a similar height, and diameter similar to the glass’s mouth.

Snip off the cone’s tip into a size that can quickly allow in a housefly. Secure the cone upside-down in the glass so that its snipped top is just above the solution’s surface. Leave it around (but not so close to) wherever you want to enjoy a seat in your backyard. Flies attracted to it will enter but find it difficult to leave.

2. Use Plants

Landscaping with plants that either repel or kill houseflies in your backyard works effectively. Some of the plants that repel houseflies include lavender, bay leaves, marigold, and basil, among others. Likewise, you can plant the popular carnivorous Venus Flytrap in your yard. It traps and kills insects for food.

3. Encourage Natural Predators In Your Backyard

The most common natural housefly predators are bats and birds. They feed on the nuisance flies in all their stages. Therefore, providing them a conducive environment around your home is a noble idea to keeping houseflies away.

Offering treats, birdbaths, and birdhouses attract a pretty large amount of birds to your backyard. However, you need to keep the birdbaths clean and place the treats away from your house. They can attract flies, too.

4. Make DIY Repellant Strips

You can also soak strips of clothes inside scented oils like rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus, clove, e.t.c. and tie them on tree branches to help repel the flies. It works.

Getting Rid Of Flies Using Chemicals And Other Means

1. Residual Insecticides and Traditional Pesticides

It’s best to use pesticides and or insecticides only when all the other natural methods above (and more) have failed. Nevertheless, a lot of care has to be taken when dealing with such chemicals.

The user should read and understand all usage instructions on the label. Please seek expert assistance in case you don’t understand anything.

Note: Most insects have nowadays developed resistance to pesticides. So be keen on your choice — or go for verified insecticides.

2. Plug-In The Fan

Flies do not navigate strong breezes with ease. Therefore, fans can keep them away from your picnic table or resting place in the backyard. While it may look weird, it works very effectively. If your backyard resting place has a shade, installing permanent fans on the roof is also a great option.

3. Use Artificial Light Traps

Whether you decide to use electrically charged or UV light traps, you’ll get the work done. However, light traps may not be very effective in the day. While electrical traps attract and zap the animals, UV light traps are mostly made to attract and get the flies stuck on a glued piece of paper.

Preventing Houseflies From Coming Back

• Keep your backyard clean so that no food remains, dog feces, or other debris are available
• Seal all garbage cans tightly to deny entry or leak of smell
• Properly manage your compost bin by ensuring that it doesn’t get moist. Always set it far away from your house
• Always keep your lawn grass trimmed to reduce breeding grounds
• Take care of stagnant water, including birdbaths and small backyard pools of water. The birdbath should always stay clean

The Bottom Line

Use our recommended methods to get rid of houseflies from your backyard; thus, keep diseases, damage, and nuisance at bay. In case the natural methods don’t work for your case, resort to the other recommended means, but with a lot of caution as mentioned. Meanwhile, thanks for reading, and please share widely to help others stay healthy, too.