Genius Hack to Keep Flies Out of Your Home in Hot Weather Every Time | UK | News
It’s summer, it’s hot, and you probably have your windows wide open to try to stay cool (although that doesn’t always work).
But the mild, carefree days of summer bring with them an unwelcome guest, with an endless buzz and an annoying zigzagging presence: flies.
Flies and bluebottles, in particular, moving around your home can be a constant nuisance. With windows and doors wide open, these pesky intruders seem to find their way inside, only to frustratingly slam into the glass, unable to comprehend the invisible barrier in front of them.
Despite your efforts to chase them away to the freedom they seem to ignore, they persist in buzzing in vain against a pane of glass with a wide open window just above or below them.
But experts have shared a genius trick to rid your home of flies, wasps, bees and other winged insects based on air currents.
Flies and other flying insects move around on air currents. Although we don’t really notice it, a draft coming through an open window can feel like a gust of wind to a small fly.
Flies usually enter your home on the wind, saving energy by following the air current. But once inside, an open window doesn’t give them a way out; in fact, it can feel like a scary gust of wind that they’re reluctant to face.
U/Paolog, a savvy Reddit user, explains: “Airflow has a lot to do with this. Imagine you’re in a river: it’s much easier to go with the flow than to swim against it.”
The best way to encourage them to leave is to open another window on the opposite side of your house. Basically, they will leave in the same direction they came in, but will rarely come back the other way.
He added: “That damn fly may have been blown in through that little hole. Opening the window wider only lets more air in, and the fly doesn’t stand a chance against it.
“If you can, open a window on the opposite side of the room or house so that the airflow blows it out. If there is no incoming wind, create an outgoing wind by waving a Coronation commemorative tea towel.”
So it turns out that the best way is to open a window or door on the opposite side of your house from where the fly entered, and then, if necessary, create a little breeze to blow it out.
Of course, don’t kill them: Flies and wasps, as well as butterflies and bees, are essential pollinators, and insect numbers have declined by 60% in the last decade. If they disappear, we die too, because nothing will grow without them.
