Homeowners typically find house fly eggs in moist, decaying organic material like trash, grass clippings, or feces. Elongated and pale in color, they appear in clusters and hatch quickly after being laid by the female fly.
Different flies have different breeding sites, but examining your compost, garbage cans, uncovered fruit or produce, and drains for maggots is a good place to start.
To determine where flies are coming from, inspect common breeding grounds such as garbage bins, food remnants, or decaying organic matter. Check for any openings or gaps in windows and doors. Using fly traps or strips can help identify high-traffic areas and lead you to the source.
House fly eggs look like small grains of rice. Eggs hatch within 24 hours, and house fly larvae emerge. House fly larvae, or maggots, appear similar to pale worms.
Use fly paper or fly strips. Clean with Pine Sol. Use essential oils. Flies hate the smells of Pine Sol, citronella, peppermint oil and clove oil. Use cinnamon as an air freshener as flies hate that smell also. Spray house with lavender, eucalyptus, or lemongrass essential oils. Use fans or light candles.
Cinnamon – use cinnamon as an air freshner, as flies hate the smell! Lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint and lemongrass essential oils – Not only will spraying these oils around the house create a beautiful aroma, but they will also deter those pesky flies too.
Flies aren't harmful, but they can sure be annoying and unpleasant, especially if they've invaded your home. If you want to keep flies away from you and your room and home, then you have to take some steps to fly-proof your home, take some preventative measures, and even create a few convenient fly traps.
House Fly (Musca domestica)
House flies typically lay eggs on animal feces and garbage. White, legless maggots (the larval stage) hatch from the eggs and grow to about ½ inch. When fully grown, maggots crawl away from their food source to undergo the pupal stage.
The best homemade fly trap is one that can attract both house flies and fruit flies. To lure both outdoors, mix scraps of rotting meat, like fish or chicken, with sugar or honey. When indoors, the best bait is old fruit or honey. Liquid dish soap is exactly what you need to drown the flies.
Flies are just like us – they spend the entire day buzzing around with their friends and get pretty tired at bedtime. Before sunset, a sleepy fly will try and find a safe place to rest. Some favourite places are on the undersides of leaves, twigs, and branches, or even in tall grass or under rocks.
Flies typically come inside homes by gaining access through damaged screens, cracks in the foundation, open doors, or open windows. Other times, flies may have bred inside, coming in on stored produce or the soil in potted plants. Fortunately, you can often get rid of indoor flies through environmental changes.
Flies and mosquitoes, on the other hand, are attracted to blue tones and repelled by warm tones like yellow and orange. They prefer dark colors because they use their heat receptors to locate warm bodies to feed on.
Flies get inside for a number of reasons, usually in pursuit of trash, rotting food, or moisture. A common house fly is attracted to decaying organic matter like feces and rotting meat. Drain flies, on the other hand, are attracted to moisture and will lay their eggs inside of drains.
Eggs are often laid in different locations that are protected and near food or decaying matter. Female flies can lay 100 eggs after the time of reproduction and can reproduce up to 5 to 6 batches in their lifetime.
Some publications suggest that using herbs and plants such as Mexican marigolds, mint, rosemary, lavender, yarrow and pitcher plants will help keep flies away, so adding these to your garden may be helpful. Eucalyptus, peppermint and lemongrass essential oils may also have some potential to deter flies.
Here are some of the most well-known scents that can lure flies: House flies: Unpleasant, decaying smells (rotting meat, decomposing garbage, etc.) Fruit flies: Sweet, sugary smells (ripe or rotting fruit, spilled soda or juice, alcohol, etc.)
To kill the flies that buzz around rooms, use an insect spray or aerosol that contains synergized pyrethrins or synthetic pyrethroids. For best results, the room should be closed and the material misted into the air. Pyrethrins are “quick kill” insecticides and have little or no residual action.
Vinegar and Dish Soap - Fill a bowl slightly with apple cider vinegar, wine or honey with some dish soap (washing up liquid). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap with punctured holes or leave uncovered. Flies will be attracted to the smell and will get stuck within the liquid.
Check anywhere that water pools including in guttering, rainwater barrels, tires or old machinery. Waterlogged pot plants may also attract flies. Maggots – these are flies in their larval stage and could indicate a potential breeding site on your property. You may discover maggots in waste areas and deteriorating food.
Not only that, but adult flies lay their eggs in the matter as well – and they lay a whole lot of them. Dead animals, rotting meat, or open compost heaps can draw these pests into your home. Structural gaps, such as cracks in walls or poorly sealed windows, provide entry points for flies seeking warmth or shelter.
Eliminate Potential Breeding Grounds
Compost piles, clogged dish drains, uncovered trash cans, leftover food, and waste can quickly become breeding grounds for flies. Make sure all trash cans are covered. Empty them regularly and clean them thoroughly—inside and out. Clean and remove pet waste immediately.
The best bait to use in a fly trap is anything sweet, sugary or fermenting, like rotting fruit, alcohols like wine, sticky soda, or sweet and sticky substances like honey or maple syrup. Sugar water and apple cider vinegar are also great options.
Mix one cup of water and one teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a misting bottle and spray it near entryways and wherever you see flies. Other natural fly repellents include lemongrass, peppermint, eucalyptus, camphor, and cinnamon.