6 min readIf you’ve landed on this page, you’ve likely encountered some flies buzzing around your home. While flies might be a bother, the upside is that education can be key to getting rid of the ones you may have lurking in your home and preventing those that may want to make their way into your living space.
“Flies are in your house because they want something, and that something is food or a place to lay their eggs,” says Ed Rajotte, Ph.D., professor emeritus of entomology at Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. “If you know you have something in your kitchen you forgot to throw away, or something like that, that gives off chemicals and attracts the flies.”
While something in your kitchen can be one reason flies have made their way into your home, it’s not the only one. In addition to Rajotte, we chatted with pest experts and entomologists to learn more about what draws flies into your home in the first place, the types of flies that are commonly found in homes, and how you can get rid of what’s catching their attention so you can have some more peace of mind.
Read on for some steps you can take to get rid of flies in your home right now.
Reasons Why Flies Are in Your Home
While it would be easier for us to tell you that there is one main reason that flies are in your home, unfortunately that isn’t the case, as several factors are generally (and usually simultaneously) contributing to their existence. Johnalyn Gordon, Ph.D., assistant professor of urban entomology at UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, notes that the reason a fly is in your home can usually be better understood after determining its species.
That said, “flies are usually in a home for one of two reasons: either something is attracting or breeding them, or they have an easy way inside and come inside for refuge and to feed,” says Louisa Messenger, Ph.D., MSc, assistant professor at the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, and medical entomologist. Messenger notes that the most common types of flies found in the home include house flies, drain flies, fruit flies, blow or bottle flies, fungus gnats, cluster flies, and phorid flies. She adds that flies are commonly attracted to food waste, unclean drains, dead animals, fecal matter, and holes in screens and doors.
Sonja L. Swiger, Ph.D., professor and extension specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife, notes that moisture can also cause flies to sneak inside your home. Having said that, she adds that sometimes the location of your home and conditions of any neighbor’s homes can unfortunately cause an uptick in the number of flies in your home even when you take all the necessary precautions.
How to Determine the Source of the Problem
Removing the source of the problem is key to preventing additional unwanted flies from entering your home, as it stops further breeding. It is necessary to visit each room in your home and conduct due diligence to eliminate common breeding sites and sources of matter. Messenger recommends removing rotted or fermenting fruit, pet waste, and any leftover organic material from drains, and thoroughly cleaning garbage cans, as you’ll be eliminating places where flies regularly breed.
While you might keep a draft guard on your doors or extra cover on your window screens when it gets cold, Oleg Latyshev, an associate certified entomologist, a preventive controls qualified individual, and Terminix technical services manager, advises doing so year-round, as these areas often serve as entry points for flies.
How to Trap and Kill Existing Flies
The good news is that there are several ways you can trap or kill existing flies in your home and do so fairly easily. Swiger and Isaac Rockwell, entomologist and pest control expert at Aptive Pest Control, note that you can start with the light traps with the sticky adhesive if you want to avoid initially using chemicals to get rid of cluster flies. If you’re trying to eliminate fruit flies, Rockwell notes that using apple cider vinegar can sometimes be effective as long as you have multiple points of entry and limited exits for them once they come near the solution.
Messenger notes that while a fly swatter or vacuum can do a solid job of killing flies, this shouldn’t be your final step, as the main goal should be to get rid of the larvae, which is what causes more flies to populate over time.
How to Prevent Flies From Coming Back
Once you get rid of any flies you see in your home, it’s important to prevent them from coming back. That said, Swiger emphasizes the importance of keeping your home as sanitary as possible.
“Prevention starts by removing both a fly's route of entry and its reason for entering,” explains Rockwell. He notes that you should do everything you can to ensure there’s no open food, food waste, or other organic matter that can decompose. While this might seem obvious, making sure doors and windows are closed (or screens are intact) can help.
When to Call a Professional
Even though you can do everything our experts recommend to prevent, trap, and kill flies in your home, there are instances when your efforts may not be sufficient and need to be supplemented by a professional’s knowledge. Swiger notes that if flies are an issue in your home after two weeks of diligently removing the source and maintaining proper sanitation, it means you’re dealing with a more complex infestation. Swiger notes that if you find larvae, it means that you haven’t found the reason the flies are surviving and reproducing, therefore requiring an expert.
Rockwell says that professionals can take efforts a step further to investigate and close entry points, as they have the necessary tools and expertise. The average person may overlook these areas or not have the capacity to address them appropriately. Messenger adds that professionals can often develop a better understanding of the root cause of the flies in your home, whether it has to do with plumbing or something different. Rockwell adds that professionals are trained to develop long-term solutions, so you can keep flies out of your home longer than only using a temporary fix.
FAQs on Getting Rid of Flies in Your Home
What smells do flies hate?
While you might think it would be easier to place items in your home with smells that deter flies, you should actually focus on removing the smells that attract them. Messenger advises taking away items that produce smells flies are drawn to, which can include garbage, feces, and fermenting food.
It’s not that flies necessarily hate the smell of repellents, but Gordon notes that their senses are often overwhelmed by them.
Even though you might have heard that flies may dislike the smells of peppermint, eucalyptus, and lavender, our experts note that while attempting to get rid of flies in your home by placing these scents in different areas of your home can be helpful, you should not have this be your only method.
What is the quickest way to get rid of flies in your house?
According to Messenger, the quickest way to remove flies in your house is to get rid of the source that’s attracting them and kill the adult flies currently in your home. As mentioned above, one of the quickest ways is to make sure your home is clean of waste, whether that be fecal, food, or other garbage waste in drains, in the bathroom, or elsewhere. From there, she notes that vacuuming and swatting can help get rid of remaining flies.
How do you get rid of flies when you don’t know where they’re coming from?
Swiger notes that it is a best practice to rely on a professional if you want to get rid of flies but don’t know where they’re coming from. Having said that, Rockwell explains that routinely checking common breeding areas and sources is usually a good starting point.
