Outdoor living spaces like decks and patios make the best places for outdoor parties. Nothing beats an afternoon summer party with friends and family at your backyard or the patio. But this can all go down the drain when you have the disgusting houseflies around the patio.
It becomes even almost unbearable when you are about to bite into your favorite burger or steak and then, boom! a housefly starts buzzing around and finally lands on your food. With unhygienic outdoor conditions, flies are most frequent in summer and spring.
The presence of flies around your patio should worry you. They are not just unsightly to look at; the eggs they deposit on your patio carry bacteria that cause several diseases.
The patio is not the only place where houseflies can become a nuisance; they could also get into your house when you open the door. It, therefore, calls for immediate action when you see these incessant pesky pests on your patio.
Although you should be worried about the presence of flies in your patio, you should not panic; getting rid and keeping away flies is easy.
How to Get Rid of Flies Outside
You can keep away flies swarming outside your house through the following ways:
1. Maintain outdoor cleanliness
The presence of flies in your patio is a clear indication that all is not well in your outdoor spaces. Flies thrive best in the unhygienic environment and this means there is some dirty spot or items somewhere in your lawn or backyard.
The source of flies in your backyard could be that open garbage disposal bag at your backyard or driveway. It could also be the open compost pit in your backyard. The most common source of flies in the patio is the dog poop and pee.
To prevent and keep away flies away from your patio party, do not let garbage bags sit in the driveway for too long. At the same time, dispose of the dog poop in your lawn and treat the dog pee spots with the solutions such as baking soda and vinegar. In a nutshell, maintain high levels of outdoor cleanliness and these pesky pests will be a thing of the past.
2. Use food covers
The worst thing that flies can do is to land your patio party food in front of your guests. It becomes even worse after you have had your patio party meals; flies love landing on food scraps and these will attract more of these and run the rest of your quality patio party time.
To ensure this scenario does not happen, nylon mesh food covers and flies will never find their ways into your food or scraps. The covers are cheap and readily available in outdoor supplies stores.
The best thing is that these covers can also be used as outdoor plants shade nets during the intense summer heat. And that is not all; you can always wash and reuse them for later patio parties.
3. Grow carnivorous plants
Carnivorous plants like Venus flytrap and the Asian pitcher plant, Nepenthes are a great eco -friendly way of keeping flies off your patio party. Upon a housefly landing on the plant, it responds by enclosing thus swallowing the fly.
The fly is usually digested and used as a source of nourishment by the plant. Together with the flies, carnivorous plants also eliminate other pests like mosquitoes, thus making your patio time easy and fun.
The best thing is that the plants are beautiful and will attract some positive vibes from visiting friends and family. The only drawback with carnivorous plants is that they do not help prevent flies from coming to your patio; they just eliminate the menace.
4. Mow your lawn often
Very tall lawn grass works against you in so many ways. It can cause brown thin patches on the lawn. It also acts as a haven for flies and mosquitoes to lay their eggs for further reproduction. With this in mind, you should also mow your grass short.
And as you do that, trim the flowers and other plants around the patio and the whole compound. But even as you do this, never mow more than 1/3 of your lawn grass at once. This will not only give you a lush green healthy lawn; it will also reduce the outdoor fly’s population since they will have nowhere to lay their eggs for reproduction.
5. Drain water
Rainwater may collect at low points in the backyard, while a dripping water sprinkler may create puddles and soggy patches on the lawn. These act as the perfect thirst-quenching places for outdoor flies.
At the same time, mosquitoes lay eggs in the water and these become the perfect breeding ground. To reduce fly’s population during a patio party and eventually get rid of these unsightly pests, drain such puddles and repair the dripping sprinklers. It will also save you lots of money you have been wasting on the inflated water bills.
6. Decorate with citrus fruits
Citrus fruits like oranges, lemon, and lime make the best scents. What you may not know is that while you enjoy the citrusy smell of lemons and lime, some flies somewhere are finding the smell pungent.
To keep away flies away from your patio party, slice some citrus fruits, and make some decorations with them on a tray. To make the hack even more effective, place essential herbs like rosemary on the newly cut flesh of citrus fruits in a decorative design.
Your guests will love the scent but flies will not. However, the method will not work if you have an unhygienic outdoor environment.
7. Install a high-speed fan
Flies do not thrive well in strong winds since they do not like cold. This explains the reason flies are most frequent in warm climates, especially daytime. But unfortunately, such times coincide with our perfect time for the patio party.
Installing a high-speed fan in the patio can help keep flies out of your patio so that you and your friends can have a quality party time. It will also cool the air in the patio and this works best in the hot summer afternoons.
On the flip side, this method will inflate your monthly energy bills but the benefits are worth the extra expenditure.
8. Swat the flies
Using a flyswatter is not one of the best ways of keeping flies out of your patio party. It is rather tiresome to keep swinging a swatter especially when the population is too large. It can be somewhat disgusting if you swatted a fly and it lands in someone else’s face or food.
But it can also be a good method if you are short of options. The swatter can also act as a fan on a hot summer afternoon. You can even try an electric swatter to make it more effective. These produce charges that electrocute the fly.
9. DIY flytraps
Alternatively, you can make a DIY flytrap using several homemade items. For example, you can have a jar filled with a solution and a lid with some holes on top. The flies will be attracted by the solution but once they go through the holes, no coming out.
On the flip side, the sight of a transparent jar filled with flies is very disgusting when having meals.
10. Ultrasonic pest repellant
Ultrasonic pest repellant is the best method of keeping flies at bay with the patio party. It is a natural method that not only keeps flies away; but it also keeps squirrels and birds off your patio.
These devices produce electromagnetic wavelengths in form of an ultrasonic wave. Flies and other pests hate the sharp sound produced by these devices. The funny thing is that the sharp sound is negligible to human ears but deafening to houseflies so they will come nowhere close to your patio.
11. Install an outdoor screen
The key to getting rid of flies out of your patio party is by making sure they do not come anywhere close in the first place. A patio screen is another great method of achieving that. An outdoor screen could be made of plastic glass and this acts as a complete barrier against flies.
The main consideration you have to put in mind is that the inside will be too hot, especially when the screen is made of plastic. But the good is that the heat can be dealt with an outdoor high-speed fan.
12. Treat your windows and frames
Flies do not directly land on the patio furniture; they first land on the window and door frames. With this in mind, you can try treating the frames with a housefly repellant cream.
Their sweet scents irritate houseflies and keep them at bay with your patio. And that is not all; they do not cause a sticky feeling on the door and window frames, which means cleaning is bliss.
There are several options to go with and they come at very fair market prices. For best results, look for a housefly repellant cream made from a mixture of cedar wood, eucalyptus, citrus fruits, and rosemary essential flavors.
Now you can go ahead and invite your friends over and have patio party fun!