How to Keep Flies Away From Your Sliding Door | + Homemade Spray Recipe

Keep flies away from your sliding door using essential oil sprays, citrus sprays, fly traps or try a home made fly repellant spray. Keeping fly screens in good condition and ensure the calking around your door in not split or cracked will prevent flies from entering your home through the sliding door.

This article will explore 4 easy ways to keep flies way from your sliding door and out of your house and ways you can prevent flies from hanging around your door.

Eucalyptus oil mixed into a spray bottle
Eucalyptus oil is a great way to keep flies away from your sliding door.

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Top 4 ways to keep flies away from your sliding door

Check out these great ways to keep flies away from your sliding door including sprays, sticky tape and a homemade fly deterrent.

1. Essential oil sprays

Flies hate the smell of essential oils including lavender, peppermint, clove, eucalyptus and basil. Water down pure essential oil and spray the surrounds of the door.

I like to spray my eucalyptus cleaning spray around the outside of my door. It smells great to me but the flies hate it. I have also had success with natural lemongrass sprays which are safe around the kitchen and home.

Check out this eco-friendly fly repellent from Amazon

2. Use a fly trap

Fly traps can be as simple as sticky strips or as fancy as electric light attractors. For a simple way to catch flies that are hanging around your sliding door small sticky traps are a great solution.

Small, disposable sticky fly traps can be hung neatly near your sliding door. Flies will fly in stick to the interior and not be able to fly out again.

Check out these low cost fly traps from Amazon below.

3. Plant fly deterring plants by your door

To deter flies from your sliding door plant strong smelling options including mint, lavender, basil, marigold and bay. I have planted a both regular and chocolate mint by my front door. I simply transplanted mint runners from a large pot into this small space.

Mint is invasive so make sure the area is sectioned off before planting it in an open garden area. Lavender or mint will also grow well in pots and can be moved around to the perfect spot near your sliding door.

I plant mint out by my front door. I trim it back at the end of summer and it grows back by spring.

Mint planted by front door to deter flies.

4. Homemade fly repellent spray

Make a simple fly repellent spray at home to use around your sliding door. The simple ingredients for this fly repellent include:

  • 1 small squirt of dish soap
  • 0.5 pint of water
  • 1 Tablespoon of baking soda
  • 1 Tablespoon of vinegar

Simply mix these ingredients together in a marked spray bottle. Add a few peelings of citrus to make it extra unappealing to flies by your sliding door.

Check out this quick video for more on how to kill house flies naturally.

What can I spray around my sliding door to keep flies away?

To keep flies away from your sliding door spray the outside with lemongrass spray, eucalyptus oil spray or a homemade spray. To make a home made fly repellent use a combination of 1 tablespoon each of dish soap, baking soda and vinegar mixed together in a spray bottle full of water.

Spray eucalyptus oil around front door
Eucalyptus oil on the outside of a sliding door can help to deter flies.

What smell will keep flies away?

Flies hate the smell of citrus, mint, lavender, eucalyptus and lemongrass. Choose your favorite smell and spray this around the outside of your screen door. You may need to re-apply the spray after it rains but these strong smells will keep flies way. Mix up essential oils with water following the dilution guide on the pack.

What’s the best way to keep flies away?

House flies are a common insect that will do their best to come into your house. They are annoying but can also carry diseases with them as they visit manure or soil outside which sticks to their legs and body. They will bring this with them when they come into your house so keeping them out and away from your sliding door is essential.

How to prevent flies from coming through your sliding door

Keeping flies out of your house is as easy as following these steps to stop them coming in your sliding door.

Make sure the insect screen is not broken

Insect screens are your best defense to keep flies out of your house and not entering your house through your sliding door. Soft screens work well but will need to be replaced when they are damaged. If you have kids or dogs these soft screens may need to be replaced every year to make sure there are no open holes for flies to sneak through.

Avoid leaving dirty dishes or food uncovered in your house

Avoiding the smells that attract flies into your home by cleaning up dirty dishes and cooked food quickly. Any food that has a strong smell will attract flies who will hang around your sliding door waiting for the opportunity to fly in. Put dirty dishes away in the dishwasher and wipe down benches to avoid attracting them to your home.

Keep garbage cans sealed with a good lid

Garbage cans will attract flies if the smells can escape through the lid. A tight fitting garbage lid makes perfect sense to avoid smells from escaping and to stop flies from hanging around your sliding door to get in.

Keep indoor compost buckets sealed

Indoor compost buckets without a tight fitting lid can quickly attract flies to your door. I like to use a small compost container in my kitchen but the lid fits tightly and stops the smells from escaping.

Check out this one on Amazon below. It even has a carbon filter to reduce smells.

Remove dog poo from outdoor areas

For those with dogs at home, it is important to get rid of dog poo from your yard as soon as possible. Flies will be attracted to the dog poo and can even breed in these areas so make sure you remove it all from your yard each day. This will reduce the number of flies that will hang around your sliding door.

Check weather stripping and caulking

Weather stripping and caulking or sealant placed around the outside of your sliding door can easily prevent flies from sneaking into through the small gaps. Replace any holes with new caulking and stop them from working their way through small gaps.

How to keep flies away from your sliding door | Summary

Essential oils smell great to us but flies hate them. This is a nice way to keep your outside area smelling nice and to deter flies at the same time. Complement this with some plants like lavender or mint and flies will hate the area around your sliding door instead of loving it.

For more on this topic, check out my previous article: Natural ways to keep flies off dogs.

To learn more about keeping flies away from mulch check out my mulch and flies article.