Flies spread disease, contaminate food and can place human health at risk.
Steps:
1. Keep flies out with barriers, your first and best line of defense. Screen all windows and doors. Seal and caulk all cracks and crevices.
2. Remove all outside organic-waste piles, which can be used as breeding sites: dog feces, animal manures, piles of grass clippings. (Hot compost piles are inhospitable to breeding flies.) Keep garbage in a container with a tightly fitting lid.
3. Put out traps - flypaper or sticky tape will catch a few flies. Use inverted cone traps to attract more flies with food bait.
4. Remember that bait only works well if flies do not have access to other food sources. Place baits well away from eating areas.
5. Cover and refrigerate leftovers.
6. Use a flyswatter against the occasional fly that strays into the house.
Tips:
Egg-to-adult development in flies can take place in as little as 7 to 10 days.
The best time to control fly populations is at their juvenile or larval stage, by eliminating breeding areas such as organic garbage and dog feces.
Flies rapidly develop resistance to insecticides, so use them only as a last resort.
Warnings:
Use nonresidual pyrethrin sprays indoors, carefully following all directions.