Flies can be a persistent nuisance during summer, but a simple homemade remedy using common kitchen ingredients can repel them naturally. Lucy Kalice, a cleaning enthusiast, shared a method on TikTok that requires only lemon, cinnamon, and rosemary.
How to make the fly repellent
Fill a saucepan halfway with water. Add sliced lemon, two cinnamon sticks, and a few sprigs of rosemary. Heat until simmering, then leave to bubble for a couple of hours, allowing the scent to fill the air.
Lucy explained: “Basically, the science behind this is that flies hate… strong smells. So like, they hate the smell of cinnamon, rosemary. You can use lavender, you can use oranges. It disrupts their communication receptors. The smells basically irritate their receptors, so the flies don’t like it, and hopefully they leave.”
Alternative uses
The solution can be turned into a spray by pouring it into a spray bottle. Use it around entry points like windowsills, window frames, and door frames. Lemon’s strong citrus oils, such as limonene, are unpleasant to flies. Similarly, cinnamon contains oils like cinnamaldehyde and eugenol that overwhelm flies’ senses, while rosemary’s camphor, eucalyptol, and cineole mask attractive food scents.
For a less messy option, diffuse cinnamon essential oil or light a cinnamon-scented candle. Ground cinnamon or sticks can be placed in areas where flies gather, though this may be messy.
Lucy also suggested using lavender and oranges as alternatives.
