If you are basking in the victory of finding something that actually works against flies, what is it?

[SylviaFuckingPlath]

Cuz we've tried everything the Internet recommends, but the bottom floor of our house is still fly central.

So sick of the little fuckers. We have a clean house. Nothing smells, nothing is rotten etc. The only fresh food out is the fruit bowl, but the fruit would go weird in the fridge. The bin is outside.

So yeah, what's worked for you oh wise women of MN?

Watching
as sick of the bastards!

The latest "trend" I've seen on TikTok, but not tried yet, is to cut a lemon in half and stud the cut edges with cloves. I've added both to my next shopping list, to give it a try.

We've resorted to getting an electric zapper, which does work. You can tell the size of the fly by the loudness of the "crack". It does zap those horrible little ones that accumulate around the fruit bowl.

We accidentally solved our flies issue by adopting a cat who, it turns out, thinks that 'sky raisins' are both great fun and absolutely delicious, so spends a lot of time chasing down the flies to devour them.

We also have a lot of bats in our area during the summer months, and they are doing an excellent job of patrolling the outside of the house and keeping down the number of flies in the area.

However, I fear both of those solutions are not ones that can be reliably replicated elsewhere!

It's the fruit, OP.

Do you have a food waste bin? If anyone has one and has a way of getting rid of fruit flies, I'd love to know it! We don't have that where we live but my ILs do and it drives me demented when I visit.

One of those zappers works wonders.

According to Good Housekeeping put washing up liquid and vinegar in a jar and leave it on the side

fly screens at every door and window, have done this for years.

Just take them down in the winter and put back up when the doors and windows need to be kept open in the summer

Yes we do something similar for fruit flies. Put cider vinegar or white wine vinegar in a small bowl with a bit of washing up liquid. Then put cling film over the top with a few holes in. It catches loads of them!

I've done the lemon and cloves and this has worked for me. I put the two lemon halves in egg cups and leave by the back door near the cat food... No flies! The lemons dry out quite quickly but lemons are cheap. I change the cloves after two uses.

We have door curtains and fly screens, and one of those fly zapping ultra violet things, which only seems to catch mosquitoes and moths.
They still get in. So I have lots of mesh covers for food (put one over your fruit bowl) and use those little table fans to keep them off (the sort with soft plastic blades sold as “anti fly”

Also using the Frequently Airborne Cat method here. It stops him looking for more substantial prey so kills two, ahem, flies with one stone.

Has anyone tried fly-repellent candles?

I’ll save you the effort, I tried this and it made absolutely no difference whatsoever, they duly ignored it.

I’m trying this
I’ve people over for dinner tonight and have mesh covers out as I’m prepping stuff.

Where I am it is cooler to keep the windows closed once it gets hot. I open them very early while it’s cool and it seems the flies are still asleep then.

However if I cook meat, even with the windows closed flies get in somehow. It can only be down the chimney, I think. Those nasty blow flies seem to be able to smell meat from an astonishing distance.

We moved 6 hours across England, from east anglia to the south west.
the difference in not living by enormous crop fields plus a bit more rain is very noticeable regarding flies in the house.
There are currently around two.
but it’s quite an expensive and arduous solution.

I’m finding lemon slices and basil in a jar of water with about 15 drops of lemongrass oil quite successful. I float a candle on top but not sure that’s really necessary.

Fly screens work for us.

@Spirael sky rasins

If it's those pesky fruit flies then I have the solution - fill a jam jar about a quarter of tge way up with cider vinegar, then add a tiny squirt of washing up liquid (this breaks the surface of the vinegar), then cover the jar with cling film and seal with an elastic band. Poke some holes in it and watch the critters drown.

Might work with bigger flies, I haven't tried it.

Does it need cling film? Just wondering about the reasoning behind cling film. It’s probably something so simply and I’m too dumb to realise!

The only thing that I've found to work is the fly papers that you pin to the ceiling.

Window screens. If they’re fruit flies then you need to wash all fruit when it enters the home - especially bananas. We then managed to get rid through a series of fly killing bugs - fly paper, a zapper and fly murder spray that you spray and then leave the house for a few hours.

Also use a drain clearer on your kitchen sink. They enjoy the drains.

Insect screens for all the windows and the back door.I used have velcro ones, which were ok, but would occasionally come off. This year invested in magnetic ones and so far no flies or other insects in the house.

The cling film lets them into the jar, but not out.

Also take a lemonade bottle, cut the top 3rd off.
Add fruit peel and water inside, take the lid off the end and invert it, the top will fit inside the bottom, the wide area act like a funnel ,
the flies get stuck inside and drown.
sweet drinks also attract and drown wasps.

You can refill it all summer.

Thank you. I thought it sounded unrealistic!