If you’ve been following us you’ll be familiar with our tests on whether water-filled baggies really help to repel house flies.

Hold on a minute while I swat a fly!

Our weather went from warm to cold over night. We decided to conclude our test and take down the water-filled baggies before they turned to bricks of ice. Yes…tall humans beware, as one of our readers commented!

Anyway, I’m on the fence with this idea. At first, I wanted to believe it really worked as I counted and compared the number of flies from day one to day three.

Well by the end of day three and now it’s two days later, I’m now killing plenty of baby flies!!

Now I did leave the doors open for an extended amount of time over and above the normal so I don’t have test results based on the average amount of time a door is naturally entered and exited.

The point is that I went through the house and tried to make sure it was fly free first. So the fact that I now have baby flies means that flies went right past this repelling method – probably laughing at the silly human, which would be me!

At this point, I just don’t know what to think about water-filled bags repelling flies.

Maybe in the spring and summer we will try these again and perform the test in a more natural approach. For now it may be time to break out the Natural Household Fly Spray!

If you don’t have the recipe…than keep reading it’s included below!

People who like this article may also find this article on amazing mosquito repellent very informative.

How to Make a Natural Household Fly Spray

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Got flies? You don't need to run to the store and get a noxious chemical spray. It is possible to make your own fly spray at home. This one is based on the U.S. Forest Service bug spray recipe.

Ingredients

Body spray:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup Avon Skin So Soft Bath Oil
• 2 cups vinegar
• 1 tbs. Eucalyptus oil (found in health food stores)

Optional: few tablespoons of citronella oil.
Room spray:

• 18 oz white vinegar
• 2 Tbsp dish washing soap

Steps

Body Spray

1. In a non-reactive bowl (ceramic or glass), mix all ingredients together.
2. Pour into a clean spray bottle.
3. Shake the spray bottle well to mix ingredients.
4. Label. Date and label the bottle with each of the ingredients plus directions for use.
5. Use by spraying on body. It is probably wise to do a skin patch test to ascertain any allergic reactions.

Room Spray

1. Mix the ingredients in a spray bottle.
2. Shake well to blend. Add water to dilute if you consider this is necessary.
3. Spray at flies and on surfaces where flies are alighting. Note: This will leave a residue that requires wiping but that's better than having flies annoying you.

Tips

• This recipe is suitable for humans, horses, and dogs.
• Store in a place out of reach of children and pets.
• This mixture will not keep indefinitely; throw out if not used up with a season.

Warnings

• Do not use on cats.

Things You'll Need

• Bowl (ceramic or glass)
• Wooden spoon for mixing
• Funnel for pouring
• Spray bottle
• Labels and markers

Related wikiHows

• How to Make Natural Outdoor Fly Repellent with Essential Oils
• How to Make Fly Paper With Golden Syrup
• How to Make a Fly Trap
• How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Sources and Citations

• Body spray adapted from US government resource cited at Moniteau Saddle Club, Flyspray recipes.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make a Natural Household Fly Spray. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.