The Common Plant You Should Grow Close To Your Home To Help Keep Flies Out

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) is a great perennial herb to have around the house. Step outside your door or onto your balcony, snip a few leaves or sprigs off, and you've got yourself an herb that can brighten up baked goods, meats, potatoes, and a million other foods. Rosemary likely can also do double duty as a fly deterrent if you grow enough of it. While there are numerous toxic ways to eliminate flies, growing rosemary has to be among the most enjoyable non-toxic method.

Like many other herbs and spices that repel flies from your house, rosemary oil extracted from the plant is proven in scientific studies to repel the common housefly, fruit flies, and mosquitoes, but evidence that rosemary plants themselves repel flies is anecdotal. That doesn't necessarily mean rosemary is an ineffective fly repellent. Rub your hands lightly across the plant and you'll realize that rosemary leaves produce volatile oils that evaporate easily at normal temperatures. Plant enough rosemary around your house and you will increase the chances of having enough rosemary oil naturally released into the air to discourage flies from entering your home.

Rosemary is a low maintenance plant. Plant it in full sun in relatively acidic, well-draining soil and water occasionally. Rosemary can tolerate drought and doesn't like being over-watered. Caring for rosemary is easy. While it's only perennial in USDA hardiness zones 8 through 10, you can over-winter the plant in a sunny indoor spot until the last frost has passed. You can increase your rosemary supply by propagating it from cuttings, allowing you to fortify your house more thoroughly against flies.

For a more powerful way to keep flies away, you can extract oil from rosemary relatively easily, or just purchase it from an herb shop. Add a few drops of it to a cup of water in a spray bottle and spray it around entrances or other places where flies might enter the house. Other DIY remedies for getting flies out of the house without killing them or using chemical pesticides include using dish soap, vinegar, and cloves. But give rosemary a shot, as there are dozens of other ways to use it.