While many other fly control options on the market are designed to kill flies or interfere with their growth cycle, garlic simply repels flies. When cattle ingest these strong-smelling compounds, the unappealing odor comes out through their sweat glands and naturally repels files, who don't like the smell.
Garlic and Flies
Flies are naturally repelled by garlic, and you can use that fact to your advantage. If you notice flies converging at various points around the exterior of your home, you can spray those areas with your own homemade garlic-based fly repellent.
The favored choice to feed garlic as a natural fly repellant is to mix it with a granulated or crumbled free-choice mineral. Mixing garlic yourself allows you to include it in your preferred mineral for your own herd.
The sulfurs contained within the garlic extract have been shown to be effective against a wide range of insects, including mosquitoes, and the lingering odor can deter mosquitoes from the area for weeks. It is thought that garlic may be an alternative mosquito repellent for humans as well.
Garlic contains a natural sulfur compound which repels mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, black flies and most small flying insects.
"Garlic is a classic," said Joe Conlon, technical advisor for the American Mosquito Control Association. Some think that eating garlic could keep mosquitoes away, but he said studies have not shown that ingesting garlic reduces bug bites. "As in most myths though, there is an element of truth in them," he said.
Garlic spray will repel most small flying or crawling, but not burrowing, insects. In particular, garlic spray has been noted to work against aphids, mites, caterpillars, armyworms, cutworms, beetles, slugs, mosquitoes, and flies.
The aroma of garlic has long been known to have repellent effects to many insects, including cockroaches. Garlic has a pungent smell that cockroaches don't like. Method: Crush a clove garlic and place around infested areas as deterrents.
The irritating and disorienting sulfur compounds in garlic repel most flying and crawling insects. It's especially helpful against annoying aphids, armyworms, beetles, caterpillars, cutworms, mites, mosquitoes, and flies.
A mixture of vinegar and dish soap can help you trap flies. To use this method, mix about an inch of apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dish soap in a tall glass. Cover the glass with plastic wrap. Secure the plastic wrap with a rubber band and poke small holes in the top.
Well, actually yes. According to Canadian research in 2017, cows fed trace mineral salt fortified with garlic powder had 52 and 56 percent fewer flies on average than the two control groups fed plain trace mineral salt.
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.
One of the most common predators of flies, including fruit flies, is the frog. Although frogs eat a diverse diet, they feed on flies as often as they can. The spider is also a common predator of the fruit fly. These arachnids spin their webs as traps for flies.
Common house flies are attracted to decaying organic filth such as feces and rotting meat, whereas fruit flies seek sugary substances and feed more commonly on overripe fruit, spilled soda, and alcohol.
Garlic Repels Mosquitoes & Other Bugs
Garlic makes a powerful natural toxic insect repellent. The natural repellent nature of garlic makes it a perfect tool for keeping pests off plants. Garlic water is simple to make and easy to administer. It can be used on vegetables or on flowering plants.
Garlic can also be stored in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. However, cold garlic will start sprouting a few days after it is taken out of the refrigerator ( 2 ). Though sprouted garlic is edible, it's not ideal and offers a more bitter taste.
Use repelling plants: Snakes don't like the smell of particular plants, including garlic, lemongrass, and marigold.
Garlic makes a powerful natural insect repellent. Garlic can be used to repel a variety of crawling and flying insects, including mosquitoes,” according to Patrick Parker , SavATree Plant Health Care Program Director. One treatment with garlic is effective for 2 weeks and can repel insects for up to one month.
Vanilla extract, pine, or lavender oil repels biting black flies and mosquitoes too. Herbs like anise, basil, cedarwood, coriander, lemongrass, and mint may work to repel black flies and can be planted in flower boxes or pots and around the edges of your yard. Garlic plants are also reported to have a repelling effect.
Used as a pesticide, garlic has a non-toxic mode of action for repelling target birds and insects.
Spiders do not like the smell of garlic or peppermint and will avoid houses with these strong scents. Cedar chips placed around a house will also help to repel spiders—consider using cedar chips in your landscaping.
Onion maggots (Hylemya antiqua) are a common and often serious insect pest of plants in the onion family including onion (where they can be the most serious production problem), leeks, shallots, garlic, and chives. Onion maggots feed below ground on host bulbs, producing tunnels and damaging bulb tissue.
The pungent scent of garlic can be a headache for rodents since it is overwhelming, and they don't like it. You can place some garlic at entry points where rodents enter and if they find it, they will run away and will look for another place to infest.