Keep Flies Away {Easy. No Chemicals.}

Last winter I read that some restaurants use a simple trick to keep flies away from their patrons who like to sit outside. Using a baggie, water, and pennies was supposed to make this work.

I put it to the test.

The garage entrance to our kitchen is used more than any entrance to our home. With three children, the door is constantly opened. The number of flies who come in to my kitchen DRIVE.ME.CRAZY. Our youngest is only two years old, so it does take her a moment to close the door behind herself, but even she, usually does it. Anyone...even visitors...hear me remind them if they forget to close the door because I simply hate flies. I needed to try the water and penny trick to keep flies away.

Earlier this summer I gathered a handful of shiny pennies and placed them in a baggie. Then I made another one. I stapled the bags on either side of the door as seen below.

Does the water and penny in the baggie prevent flies?

Absolutely! This works. Before I hung them, we would get from 1-3 flies in the house daily. My children are still in-and-out-in-and-out, but now we only see one or two new flies each week, and they are often from one of the other doors. FYI, the doorway is only inches away from our recycling bin and a few feet from our large trash can. They no longer hover in that area though.

WHY?

This is not a scientific answer. I think the water magnifies the pennies through the clear plastic bag. To a fly, it would look like thousands of eyes since they have compound eyes. Each compound eye is made of about 4,000 lenses, so it seems reasonable to conclude that the pennies would be multiplied and look like a crazy amount of giant eyes.

TIPS:

Use shiny pennies. They are more reflective.

Use sturdy bags. Skip the sandwich baggies. Use a storage or freezer bag which is made of thicker plastic.

Staple or tack the bag. A single staple was strong enough for my small bag.

Hang a bag over the window or doorway or one on each side.

This photo is from early this summer when we cleaned the garage.
You can see how close the garbage and recycling cans are to the door.

Be sure to check out our other kid-friendly garage solutions and how to organize toys and bikes in the garage.

What natural remedy have you used to get rid of pests?

~ Annette
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