Here are 5 ways to keep flies away from your home. If you're wondering how to keep flies away with vinegar, a homemade repellent works wonders. Just mix some water with apple cider vinegar and spray them away!
Does Vinegar, Dish Soap, Essential Oils Repel Flies? Vinegar attracts, not repels flies; however, a container with vinegar and dish soap will function as an attractant trap as the vinegar lures flies to enter the trap and the dish soap will cause the flies to sink and die.
Using a mixture of water and vinegar as a spray around windows and doors can also deter flies since they hate the smell and will generally stay away from sprayed areas. Finally, simply leaving out a bowl of vinegar can act as a repellent due to its strong aroma.
Cayenne pepper is an excellent natural fly repellent and also deters many other insects. 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.
Eucalyptus oil is a good option, but you can also use lavender, citrus, pine, clove, peppermint, and thyme essential oils. Most flies hate these scents, so the oils will act as a fly repellent.
The Saint Louis Science Center performed this fly trap experiment with two different vinegars: white and apple cider. The white vinegar is too pungent, and lacks sweetness, to attract fruit flies. However, apple cider vinegar brings in fruit flies by the dozens.
White vinegar can be used to catch fruit flies, but they'll be MUCH more inclined to fly into a trap if apple cider vinegar is used. Make a trap as described in the previous paragraph, with a jar and plastic wrap. Here's a fun experiment that kids will love: try out both white vinegar and apple cider vinegar.
You can also take some of the white vinegar and pour it down the drains too as the white vinegar will instantly kill any fruit flies, eggs, or larvae on contact as it goes down the drain.
Vinegar (or acetic acid) is the ultimate product of the fermentation process in fruit, which is why fruit flies are attracted to vinegar odor. However, both low and high concentrations of vinegar odor leave flies indifferent (left).
Will Vinegar Kill Flies? Vinegar in a bowl does not kill flies. However, it will attract them. Mixing the vinegar with the dish soap ensures that flies can't stay on the surface of the vinegar and drown.
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.
To find that fruit, flies use their sense of smell, what we call their olfactory system. What they are sensing, smelling, are things like acetic acid — the molecule that gives vinegar its pungent punch. So you could bait your trap with fruit, but vinegar jumps right to the chase and lures them in.
The only maintenance required is to gently squeeze the lemon once a day to release the juice. Niecy said this is a method that can be used both indoors and outside to keep flies at bay. Flies are revolted by citrus and clove scents, as are mosquitoes, making it the perfect tonic to leave on your back veranda in summer.
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.) Drain flies: Moist, mildewy smells.
Lavender is a good natural choice for keeping bugs at bay. Not only does the herb smell amazing but it also repels flies, beetles and even fleas – this is due to the lavender oil.
Does honey actually help you catch flies? Well, it's definitely going to help you more than vinegar generally will, at least (though apple cider vinegar can be used to attract them too). Flies may be attracted to the sweetness of honey. Of course, that sweetness can be a fly's downfall, since it's also quite sticky.
Fruit flies aren't super picky. They're attracted to various things, like overripe fruit, rotting food, and anything that smells like fermentation. They are especially drawn to apple cider vinegar and juicy, spoiling fruit scraps like pineapple rinds.
While vinegar is an excellent tool for repelling certain insects, not all bugs hate vinegar. Specifically, aphids and fruit flies love the scent of vinegar and will seek it out. You can use this to your advantage by creating traps.
Vinegar spray
One of the easiest homemade bug sprays, simply mix one cup of white vinegar, at Walmart, with three cups of water. You can also add half a teaspoon of dishwashing soap to help the solution adhere.
The pungent smell of vinegar is also a natural way to repel mice and rats. These pests cannot stand the sharp scent of vinegar, which means it can be used as an effective rodent repellent. You can use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar for this purpose.