Why Vinegar Is The Secret To A Housefly-Free Kitchen

The last thing that you want when preparing food in your kitchen is dealing with houseflies. Unfortunately, even if you keep a clean kitchen, flies are a common occurrence. They may be even more common in summer and fall if you have doors and windows open more often. Tasting Table spoke with Alexis Rochester, Investigative Chemist and creator of Chemistry Cachet, to get her advice on banishing flies from your kitchen.

Rochester explained that apple cider vinegar can be used to keep fruit flies off of your produce and out of the kitchen. Apple cider vinegar is made from fermented apple juice, and it has a pungent, fruity aroma and a slightly sour taste, which attracts small fruit flies. Rochester said that using a combination of apple cider vinegar and dish soap or liquid soap in a small bowl will attract gnats, fruit flies. and filter flies (which are small flies that look like fruit flies). She says, "Instead of flies going around the kitchen, they will be attracted to the saucer ... then they get stuck inside the mixture."

For house flies, which aren't attracted to sweet things, she recommended making a spray out of apple cider vinegar and mint oil. She says, "Using a spray with apple cider vinegar and mint oil (other oils like citronella are also great to add) works to repel many insects like flies and gnats. I have found that for fruit flies, the saucer method is one of the best. But to repel house flies, using a spray is more effective for keeping them away."

There are key differences between gnats, fruit flies, and house flies, and understanding those differences will help you better understand how to get rid of them from your home. House flies breed in garbage, pet waste, manure, and decaying organic matter. They are attracted to strong-smelling organic and biological materials like meat scraps, dirty dishes, waste, and trash.

If you want to get flies out of the kitchen using all-natural methods, you can make a DIY apple cider vinegar spray. Get a clean spray bottle and fill it with a mixture of water, apple cider vinegar, and a few drops of dish soap. Add essential oils like mint, lavender, or eucalyptus, and a small amount of cayenne pepper. Spray this mixture in places where flies gather in your kitchen. Kitchen plants like citronella, bay leaves, marigolds, and basil can ward off flies as well.

To keep flies out of your kitchen for good, you need to get rid of the ones in your home to prevent them from laying eggs, and address the underlying thing that attracted them in the first place. The best method is to kill the ones that are already in your house and then take measures to prevent new ones from entering. Fly traps or sticky fly paper can trap existing flies. You should also use cleaning and sanitizing methods to remove things that might attract new flies. Eliminate moisture or dampness that encourages flies to breed, and repair tears in window screens and seal gaps around windows and doors.