How to get rid of flies in the garden?

[bunny85]

Every time the weather gets hot those horrible flies come to our garden. We don't have pets and the garden is very tidy and clean, but our neighbours have dogs who sometimes poo in their garden and even though I'm sure it all gets picked up I think it contributes to the problem (before someone suggests, I can't really mention it to them so need to find another solution). Also there's a shop nearby and maybe they come from there? I'm not sure. But they can ruin any BBQ or garden picnic for me easily, I absolutely loathe them. We have a fly screen for the back door so that isn't an issue, it's mainly about them coming to the garden. What can I use? P.S. we have 2 small kids. Thank you!

You can’t stop flies coming into your garden!

Well you could try citronella candles, or some kind of fly or mosquito repellant burners. But you'd have to keep a close eye on the kids. Or you could try some kind of insect repellant cream?

How many flies are we talking?

I’m a very clean person with a neat, tidy and very beautiful garden.
I have dogs that go to the toilet in the garden, they are only allowed on a small area of stones and sadly, despite regular bleaching, there is often definitely an odour.
Particularly on a hot day I can often smell urine.
I’m looking into a biological cleaner to try and fix it.

And yet, I pretty much never see flies in the garden unless there is poo I haven’t picked up yet.

It seems odd to me you have no pets or rubbish and are getting enough flies to ruin BBQs.
They must be coming from somewhere, I think you need to work out where they are all coming from and go from there

To minimize flies things have to be clean so dog poop will be a problem.
Also compost apparently can be an issue.

Otherwise if they are mozzy type flies then still water can encourage them.

It is recommended that you mow your lawn often.

In the USA there are a lot of solar zappers, I'm not sure if the UK has them? They emit a light which attracts then traps or kills the flies.

Citronella candles or tiki sticks might help?

Quicklime and a concrete case. 👍

These are amazing, I use them in stables and barns as well as one hanging on what used to be a bird feeder at the end of the garden. Gross when it comes to emptying them but well worth it in my opinion. Even wasps fall for them sometimes!
www.viovet.co.uk/Red-Top-Fly-Trap/c16120/?quick_find=279728&utm_source=sag&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces_UK&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1PSDBhDbARIsAPeTqrcr7Gxs26HjKuOIZCA4ZfjYoJr7W4IMuUldY81UAN5xmrXAHCP8lzIaArg1EALw_wcB

Insects are hugely decimated and their decline is one of the first signs of a collapsing ecosystem. But sure, enjoy your bleeding BBQs as our planet dies.

You could fill your garden with plants that naturally repel insects - lavender, basil, rosemary, citronella, lemon balm or lemon thyme, mint, marigolds, nasturtiums, bay, wormwood, catnip etc

You could fill your garden with plants that naturally repel insects - lavender, basil, rosemary, citronella, lemon balm or lemon thyme, mint, marigolds, nasturtiums, bay, wormwood, catnip etc
Interesting.
This is perhaps why I don’t see many despite having an alluringly fragrant (to a fly! 🤢) garden, I have all of those except wormwood and citronella and lots of other strongly scented plants, oregano, sage, scented roses etc

My cat will smack them with both paws. Last summer I found dozens dead on the patio. 😬

Don’t kill wasps, we need them. Honestly if you are that bothered by creatures outside, stay inside. Don’t start killing things.

Feed the birds.. all year .. get the population up. They eat flies, spiders, mosquitoes etc

What kind of flies OP?

I read this and just thought that's where the flies live .....

Keep them away from you outside when you're eating by burning a citronella candle but otherwise surely it's ok?

Unless you're going to say it's cos you buried someone under your patio

Don't kill insects! Birds are starving. Feed birds! More birds, more insects get eaten!

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

There is no shortage of flies if you live in a rural environment and it would be poor animal welfare to not do various things to reduce their numbers AND encourage them to stay away from animal housing. Polite signs don't cut it and our wide and varied bird species don't seem that keen on them, other than the swifts. Unusual for most birds to exist on a diet of flying insects, surely, when they are seed and fruit eaters with a sideline in crawling creatures?

i buy buzz jar fly traps from amazon. you sprinkle the powder into the container with water and it attracts the flies who fly into the container and die. it looks disgusting filled to the brim with dead flies but i just hang it somewhere i can’t see it! and then just throw it straight in the bin when it’s full.

Op do you have open bins or compost heaps? Something is causing them to be there, and it’s unlikely it’s the dog poo that’s being picked up next door, they need something to lay their eggs in and feed off, generally something rotten, so there must be something near by.

There is no shortage of flies if you live in a rural environment and it would be poor animal welfare to not do various things to reduce their numbers AND encourage them to stay away from animal housing
I would argue that extremely large numbers of pest insects indicates an imbalance somewhere and the answer is to correct the imbalance; cleaner, more sanitary animal housing, lower numbers of livestock, a greater diversity of plants etc.
The answer is not to cock it up further by ‘controlling’ the pests numbers...

Unusual for most birds to exist on a diet of flying insects, surely, when they are seed and fruit eaters with a sideline in crawling creatures?
Depends on the bird.

Common UK garden birds? Got loads of swifts but they tend to steer clear of the garden.
We have at various times all the tit species, robins, goldcrest, wren, blackbird, field fares, jays, magpies, pigeons, wrens, the woodpecker, thrush of some sort, dunnock, bullfinch, chaffinch, nuthatch. Any of them going to reliably eat flies for me?

Swifts (or perhaps swallows, I can't tell them apart) are amazing, catching on the wing, but they need a big space to work. My little garden's hopeless!

Birds that eat grubs- maggots, larvae of various kinds- eat the flies before they are flies!

Do you remember the insects that used to get mashed on the windscreen, during a summer motorway journey? It just doesn't happen now, sadly. Not as many insects.

The tit species eat quite a lot of flies and fly larvae actually.
Wrens eat mostly small insects including flies.
I imagine there are other bird species but those are the only two I know of straight away.
Flies are a food source for spiders too and probably other insects.

I don’t know what kind of farming you are referring to but the ‘commercial/industrial’ lots of animals in barns type of farming is obviously going to attract an enormous number flies because it is unsanitary...
Ditto for stables.

I'm talking about my own personal experience as a low density, mainly outdoors but some indoors when appropriate smallholder. Even when extensively stocked in open fields with just hedges for shelter sheep can get flystrike in the window before shearing, if we get a hot Easter as we did a couple of years back. Even with clean backsides, being checked twice a day, being tame enough to properly check, being well aware of the early signs, I still get at one or two caught more years than not. So the field and woodland birds need to up their game for me I'm afraid, they need to develop a taste for green, black and bluebottles!

Hadn't thought about maggots as being more likely to be bird feed though than flies on the wing, that's a good point. Our tits seem to spend all day decimating the bird feeders then sitting around waiting for me to refill. Maybe I'm too generous as a host 😂

I live rurally and have no issues with flies, thank goodness. If there’s a problem with flies then there’s a cause locally.