Sometimes, you just want to leave your door open. This is especially true when it’s hot and you want some air and proper ventilation in your home. But here’s the thing — flies and other pests can use the open door to get into your home. Here are some ways to keep flies out while the door is open.
How to keep flies away when your door is open
1. Make food inaccessible
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to you — flies are attracted to food and water. If they can easily find these inside your home, you bet they are going to use the open door to raid your home and gather the resources they need. This can also be dangerous because flies are dirty creatures that can spread a variety of diseases, such as cholera, e. coli infection, and salmonellosis.
To keep flies out while the door is open, put food and water in their proper places. Put them in cabinets, containers, refrigerators, or anywhere safe from pests.
2. Cleaning up immediately after eating will keep flies away
No, the exposed and ready-to-eat food items are not the only ones that attract flies. The food crumbs and drink spills in your dining area and kitchen are great attractors too. Remember that flies, on average, are just about six to seven millimeters small. Even the smallest food pieces and water droplets are enough to sustain them. This is why they are still attracted to these small pieces of food and water.
Wash the dishes immediately after eating. And then wipe countertops, dining tables, the area under the tables, the cooking area, and anywhere else where small pieces of food and water may have accumulated.
3. Install door and window screens if your door is open
If you want to keep flies out while the door is open, well, just put a barrier over your doors and windows. Door and window screens are great options. There are many designs and meshes you can choose from. And the great thing about them is that they have small holes that can allow air inside your home and promote proper ventilation. Isn’t that why you have your door and window open in the first place?
With barriers such as door and window screens, flies won’t be able to get inside your home even while your doors and windows are open.
4. Clean your yard
Flies are not picky eaters. They will eat things that humans don’t consider edible, such as the compost piles in your garden and your dog’s poop that you have left in your yard. These will naturally attract flies to your home’s exterior. And if they are already there, there is a big chance that they will get inside your home through your open door.
Clean your yard, so it doesn’t have debris that can attract flies. It doesn’t help that the housefly life cycle involves houseflies leaving their young on rich food sources like garbage cans. They can thrive outside your home, giving you even more complicated fly problems.
5. Managing your garden properly will keep flies away
Do you have a garden? If you do, you are more vulnerable to pests than those who don’t. Your garden is simply a haven of resources for different kinds of pests. One of the pests that can bother your garden is the fruit fly. These pests are particularly attracted to the fermenting juices of ripe and overripe fruits and vegetables. If you are not careful, you may even end up eating fruits and vegetables with fruit flies.
Practice proper gardening. If you don’t, you will attract not just fruit flies, but other garden pests that can be more destructive. The least you could do to avoid fruit flies is to pick up ripe fruits and vegetables and throw away already-rotting ones.
6. Use pesticides
The quickest way to get rid of flies getting inside through your open door is the use of pesticides. Spray directly on the flies. You can also spray around the edges of your door to stop flies from getting through. But pesticides for flies have little to no residual effects. You can’t consistently deter flies by spraying pesticides on the edges of your door.
The use of pesticides is great for immediate effects. But it doesn’t really solve the problem of why flies keep coming through your open door. There is also the risk associated with the toxic chemicals in pesticides.
7. Use fly traps
Pesticides are not the only commercial products you can try to keep flies out while your door is open. You can also try fly traps. They come in many forms. They can be super simple, like those sticky traps that catch flies who land on them. And they can also be complicated mechanisms, like flycatchers that contain flies and keep them alive. Flycatchers are actually great if you want to get rid of flies without killing them.
8. When your door is open you can keep flies away with homemade sprays
If you really don’t want to use commercial pest control products, you can try home remedies. But take note that they may not be as effective as, say, pesticides. After all, they are not specifically formulated to kill or repel flies. But they can still work if you don’t have a big fly problem anyway and you don’t want to be exposed to chemicals.
One popular home remedy is the lavender essential oil spray. Dilute a few drops of the essential oil in water, and then put the resulting solution in a spray bottle. Spray it around the edges of your open door. Be careful of essential oil poisoning though.
Some people are also seeing results with cloves and lemons. They cut up lemons and put pieces of cloves in them. And then they put them in areas where they don’t want flies, such as open doors and windows.
9. Put fly-repelling plants near doors and windows will keep flies away
Flies hate certain smells. This is why natural remedies like lavender work so well. You can take advantage of this in other ways. For instance, flies hate the smell of particular plants, making these plants natural fly repellents. Basil, marigold, mint, and lavender are especially effective.
You can put them in pots. And then place the pots near your doors and windows. They will act like natural barriers that prevent flies from going through your open doors and windows. But again, take note that their effectiveness is limited, just like other natural remedies.
You can keep flies away when your door is open
Yes, flies can come in through open doors, but keeping food covered, and cleaning up regularly — along with our other tips above — will help you manage the situation.