I’ve been battling flies for 40 years before I found a 3-ingredient recipe that gets them all, a £2.55 batch lasts years
IF electric lights or sticky traps haven’t reduced the amount of flies in your home, this recipe might help.
A homeowner shared the DIY hack he uses to keep the insects out of his space.
In his viral video, the TikTok user (@that40yearguy) revealed the recipe he came across after a lifetime of tring to tackle his fly problem.
“You’re telling me for 40 years of battling flies and smelling the stinky fly traps, I could have done this?” he asked his audience.
The poster explained that you will need an empty water bottle for the trick.
He cut off the top third of the bottle and placed it upside down to create a funnel.
Next, he measured out a teaspoon of honey and mixed it with 60 grams of brown sugar.
The experts at Proterra Pest Control explained why you really do catch more flies with honey.
They explained that the insects are attracted to the sweet ingredient and can become easily trapped in the sticky substance.
Similarly, flies are attracted to sugar, making the combination a deadly mixture for the pests.
Diluting the ingredients with 235 mililitres of water makes the mixture go further.
A jar of honey is available at shop’s such as Tesco for just 75p.
You can also pick up a bag of brown sugar for £1.80, bringing your recipe total to just £2.55.
The TikToker pointed out that these ingredients also have a long shelf life, allowing you to repeat the process for years to come.
For his final step, the poster placed the DIY fly trap outside to test its efficicency.
When he returned after leaving it for a few hours, he remarked that there were a “tonne” of flies in the mixture.
He added that the DIY substance also didn’t smell, making it ideal for use in the home.
Why do flies come out in summer?
Flies are present all year round, but all of a sudden when summer comes, they are just EVERYWHERE!
The main contributing factors are the breeding cycle of flies and the soaring temperatures.
Insects are cold blooded and in summer, when their body temperature rises from the external heat, they become more active.
The hotter weather also let’s them seek out cool moist spots, like inside your home, to escape from the sweltering heat and to lay their eggs.
House Fly eggs take around 20 hours to hatch, but when the temperature rises above 37 degrees, can hatch within 8 hours!
In extreme hot weather the eggs can mature from larvae to adult fly in as little as four days.
The average lifespan of a housefly is 21 days, so each female can lay up to 900 eggs during the summer months!
TikTok users shared their thoughts on the hack in the comments section.
“Recall the old saying ‘You’ll attract more flies with honey,’ [I] guess it’s true,” wrote one viewer.
“Not only did you just save my sanity, you may have save the world,” said another impressed follower.
“No pesticides so I can feed them to the chickens!” pointed out a third person.
“When I say I HATE flies, they make my skin crawl and we get plenty of them come in the house, I am doing this now!!” commented another TikToker.
