Neighbors Chickens Causing Flies | 8 Ways to Keep Flies Away from Your House

If your neighbor is raising chickens, they will almost always have a problem with flies. If the chickens are allowed to roam free and occasionally get too close to your property, you could suffer with flies as well.

It isn’t so much that the chickens attract the flies, but chicken droppings and even wet organic matter near the chickens are certainly going to attract them. And once they get inundated with flies, you might be next.

So just how do you avoid flies around your home when your neighbors have a ton of chickens in their yard? The good news is that there are both standard and natural ways to get rid of flies.

All of these methods are effective, low-cost, and super-easy. Here are the top ways to get rid of flies if your neighbors have chickens.

How to keep flies away if your neighbors have chickens

There are some easy measures you can take that will increase the odds of getting rid of those pesky flies. Here are a few of them:

1. Keep Your Yard as Clean as Possible

If you leave trash or food outdoors, the flies are naturally going to be attracted to it. Keep your yard as tidy as possible and keep your trash can lids on the containers and your food in the garbage cans.

If you have a compost pile, keep it neat and turn it regularly so that the materials don’t just sit there, which might attract flies.

2. Use a Fly Zapper

Fly zappers don’t keep flies away but they do kill the flies as soon as they get near these devices. Most of them use a small electrical charge to kill the flies, and you’ll have to empty it occasionally to get rid of the dead flies.

Try putting the zapper where most of your flies are found, and always keep it out of the reach of children.

3. Change the Color of Your Light Bulbs

Flies hate yellow lights, so they’ll stay away if you change the light bulb on your front porch to a yellow one instead of a regular white one.

They also hate blue light bulbs, so if you place some poles with blue light bulbs near the end of your property, they’re much less likely to go any further.

4. Keep Your Grass Mowed Short

When your grass is too long, it can cause thin brown patches to form, and both flies and mosquitoes will go there to lay their eggs.

If you keep your grass mowed short, this won’t happen because the flies and mosquitoes won’t have anywhere to lay the eggs.

5. Make Sure No Water Builds Up in Your Yard

If it’s rained a lot lately or even if you find that your yard sprinkler has been leaking, this buildup of water can be a big attraction to flies.

Try to drain these puddles as best you can because both flies and mosquitoes tend to lay their eggs in wet or damp areas in your yard.

Natural Methods to Eliminate Flies

There are numerous methods you can use to eliminate flies from your yard, and some of the more natural methods include the following:

6. Natural Oils

There are natural oils that repel flies, and you can dilute them with water and spray them in the areas of your yard that are attracting the flies. For great results, try one of these oils: citronella, lavender, pine, eucalyptus, lemongrass, and peppermint.

The citrus oils also work. The only bad part about this method is that you’ll have to spray regularly for it to be effective.

You can also slice up citrus fruits like lemons, limes and oranges fruits and place them on the ground near the border of your property. Flies hate this smell and will scoot away quickly when they smell it.

7. Grow fly deterring plants

If you plant certain plants close to the border of your property, it can very well repel the flies and keep them in your neighbor’s yard. For the best results, try plants such as marigolds, fresh mint plants, and fresh lavender plants.

Marigolds can help to keep flies away.

All of these are easy to grow and very effective at keeping away flies. Carnivorous plants also work, such as the Venus flytrap and the Nepenthes, an Asian pitcher plant. These work because the plants will actually catch the flies and eat them.

Place mint in pots around the border of your yard to keep flies away.

Other plants that keep flies away include basil plants, cloves, petunias, rosemary, and garlic..

8. Put Soap in a Mesh Bag

Place a strong smelling bar of soap in a mesh bag and hang it on the edge of your fence line. Strong smells that flies hate include peppermint and lavender.

Flies, like many other pests, have a very strong sense of smell and will fly off in the opposite direction when exposed to those smells.

Conclusion

The good news about having neighbors that raise chickens is that chickens do enjoy eating flies, but since they cannot eat all of them.

While you can try fly traps, including both store-bought ones and DIY traps, there are numerous natural methods that work just as well as those, if not better.

The main thing to remember is that flies hate strong smells, so regardless of what you end up using, it’s going to be much more effective if the scent is pungent and strong.

Avoid using vinegar because vinegar actually attracts flies. Natural methods are a good long-term solution, and won’t harm pets or beneficial insects in your yard.

Happy growing.