7 Tips to Keep Flies Away from Your Kitchen
Keep flies away! Have you ever been annoyed by flies circling around you? You might be trying to enjoy your breakfast when an annoying one starts flying around you. You tried shooing them away but they kept on coming back. You tried swatting them with a newspaper but to no avail because they can see your movements with the thousands of visual receptors they have.
Pro Fact: Flies are not only annoying but they also act as mechanical vectors for many diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery.
They carry bacteria on their body and pass them onto your food when they land on the food. It is thus important to keep flies away from us to prevent being infected by these disease-causing bacteria.
Flies are attracted to human food and rotting materials. They can find plenty of food sources in your kitchen as it is where you prepare food. Improper management of food waste serves as an invitation for their breeding.
Since swatting them with a newspaper is not a very effective way to get rid of them, are there any other ways to keep flies away from your kitchen?
1. Deny Flies Access
Closing doors and windows are the simplest way to keep flies away from your kitchen. A better option would be to install fly screens as you can keep flies away without making your kitchen stuffy.
2. Improve Air Circulation
Circulating air disrupts their ability to fly, so using a fan to keep air circulating inside your kitchen helps keep flies away.
3. Keep Food Covered
Flies have a sensitive olfactory system so they will be able to smell food from afar. Make sure that no food is left exposed if you do not want to share your food with flies. By making sure that your food is covered, you can also prevent contamination of food.
4. Keep Up With the Dishes
Do you always leave your dirty dishes in the sink after meals and wash them only after days?
Flies love all the food stain and leftovers so your sink that is full of dirty dishes will be the perfect place for the flies to hang out and get food.
Cleaning your dishes after meals is a good way to prevent that from happening. It is also good to put your dirty dishes in a dishwasher if you are unable to clean them immediately.
The Complete Guide to Flies Prevention, Treatment and Control in Singapore
5. Empty the Bins Regularly
A kitchen bin containing rotten food wastes provides ample food sources for both adult flies and their young ones. Kitchen bins with your food waste should be emptied daily at the end of the day to keep flies away.
6. Keep the Drains Clean
Like many other insect pests, flies are attracted to moist places so dirty drains provide both moisture and food source for them. To clean your kitchen drain, you can pour vinegar and baking powder into the drain and then flush them with boiling water.
7. Plant Aromatic Herbs
Some aromatic herbs are known to repel flies and other insects. Some examples of these insect-repelling herbs are basil, lavender, eucalyptus, lemon balm and thyme. Furthermore, planting these herbs in your kitchen can increase the greenery in your house and also add some extra flavour to your food if you use them in your cooking.
Keeping flies away is not really that difficult.
By putting in a little effort you can protect your family members from these harmful pests.
If you have an established fly infestation around you, you should seek professionals’ help to solve it. Killem provides professional solutions to solve the fly infestation around your property and keep you safe from the pest.
Bonus Tip: Explore Natural Ways to Keep Flies Away
Besides using herds, there are other natural and easy ways to keep flies away from your home. For example, flies don’t like the smell of cloves, so placing a bowl full of dried cloves can help you get rid of flies. Another solution would be to use cinnamon as flies hate the smell of it too.
Using essential oils is another alternative way to keep the flies away. Try spraying lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint and lemongrass essential oils around your house to prevent them from flying around.
You can also try to create a fly trap by mixing apple cider vinegar with a liquid soap. Flies will be attracted to the smell of apples and vinegar, but they won’t be able to escape the trap because of the surface tension created by the soap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Flies get attracted to rotting fruits, vegetables and meat. Leaving dirty dishes, not frequently emptying your bin, or leaving the food waste bin accessible can also attract flies to your kitchen.
Flies often enter the kitchen and homes through open doors and windows. Sometimes they can also get through cracks and gaps in your building.
To find a source of flies and get rid of them you need to clean your kitchen and eliminate everything that attracts flies. Make sure that no food particles are left behind (e.g. behind the refrigerator, around your trash bin, etc).
