Seven easy DIY methods to rid your house of flies
Here are seven very quick and very easy DIY methods to make traps to rid your house of flies
August 27, 2019
KARACHI: Houseflies have suddenly started to appear more and more in the city, especially after the torrential rains a couple of weeks ago and the entrails, including tripe, left out on the streets after Eid-ul-Azha.
The fact that politicians of the Pakistan's business and industrial hub — that powers a huge portion of the country's economy — are engaged in a war of words and slinging of responsibilities doesn't help much when there are heaps upon heaps of garbage strewn around the city.
Here are some tips and tricks you can use at your home to rid the place of flies:
1. Soda bottle method
Recommended indoors
Wash a 1.5/2.25-litre plastic bottle of a fizzy drink and dry it clean. Then cut the top third of the bottle, from just above the brand label and put it aside. Fill up the remaining bottle to two-thirds with a sweet liquid, e.g. sugar water, then take the part of the bottle you had put aside and place it upside down into the opening of the larger part.
The houseflies would be attracted to the sweet liquid and go inside but would be unable to get out of it.
2. Lemon-clove method
Recommended both indoors and outdoors
Take a lemon and cut it in half. Then stick in as many cloves as possible into the halves and place them in a bowl, plate or container but nothing that has high walls.
3. Apple cider vinegar method
Recommended indoors; can be used outdoors
Take a bowl — or any small container — and fill it up three-quarters with apple cider vinegar. Once that is done, add a drop of dish soap to the apple cider vinegar to turn it into a flytrap, which would attract the houseflies. The soap would make sure the flies fall in and do not escape. Place it separately with no other distraction for the flies.
4. Plants method
Recommended outdoors
Basil, mint, lavender, nasturtiums, and bay leaves — all easy to grow and maintain — repel flies. Of the five, nasturtiums and mint help keep away beetles, mice, and ants as well.
Bay leaf, on the other hand, can also be kept indoors.
5. Lemongrass oil method
Recommended indoors
This is to be used in spray bottles. Take a half cup of water, heat it up slightly, and add 20-25 drops of unadulterated lemongrass oil to it, then pour it into your spray bottle.
Flies are very averse to the smell of lemongrass while its smell can make your house feel good and welcoming. Win-win, right?
6. Cucumber method
Recommended for outdoors mostly
Interestingly, flies are also averse to the smell of cucumbers. Therefore, you can cut a cucumber into slices and put it on top of your trash (if without lid) or the lid of the trash can, as well as anywhere you think it would possible for flies to find cracks and corners to lay eggs.
7. Water bag method
Recommended at entrances/doors
Fill up clear plastic bags with water up to three-quarters, tie a knot, and hang it in the doorway. This appears to flies as not bags but cobwebs that instantly distract and disorient the flies.
It is up to ourselves to use these DIY methods to get ride of the houseflies at least so that diseases — such as typhoid and E.Coli — can be prevented from spreading.
It is even more crucial to do so as at least 10 people have been killed in Karachi in a month by tick-borne Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and waterborne amoeba, Naegleria fowleri.
Apart from the aforementioned techniques, make sure to sanitise your home, take your trash outside and dispose of it properly, and clean the tabletops of grease. Also remember to either seal your trash bags or place them in garbage cans with working lids.
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