10/14/2026
🪰 LET’S TALK ABOUT FLIES! 🪰
I get probably 15 calls a week just for flies! House flies, horse flies, fruit flies, drain flies, and all kinds of other small flies.
One thing I always explain to customers is that most fly problems come down to sanitation and finding the source! You can spray flies all day long, but if you don’t eliminate what’s attracting them or where they’re breeding, they’re just going to keep coming back.
Here are some things you can do to help prevent flies around your home or business:
🗑️ Keep your trash cans clean! It’s not enough to just take out the trash. The cans themselves need to be washed regularly. Keep the lids closed and, if possible, keep them away from the structure.
🏢 Keep dumpsters clean! Dumpsters are one of the biggest sources of fly activity I see, especially around restaurants. Make sure the area underneath and around the dumpster stays clean, too. Spilled liquids and food debris attract flies.
🍔 Restaurants, this one is important! Organic debris builds up in places you might not even think about. Under and behind fryers, around equipment legs, inside floor drains, underneath refrigerators, and even in the cracks of your flooring. I’ve seen fly problems caused by just a small amount of decomposing food trapped in a hard-to-reach area.
🐕 Clean up after your pets and livestock! Dog p**p, manure, spilled animal feed, and wet bedding can all attract certain types of flies. Keeping these areas clean makes a huge difference.
🍎 Don’t leave produce sitting around! Overripe fruit, vegetables, and food scraps can quickly become breeding sites for fruit flies and other small flies.
💧 Check your drains and moisture! That nasty buildup inside floor drains, garbage disposals, and other plumbing areas can support small fly breeding. Simply pouring bleach down a drain usually won’t solve the problem. The organic buildup needs to be physically removed.
🌳 Keep your yard maintained! Remove rotting vegetation, fallen fruit, grass clippings, and other decaying organic material. These can attract certain fly species.
Here’s the biggest thing I want people to understand:
Not every fly is a sanitation issue. Horse flies, for example, develop in wet outdoor habitats and aren’t caused by dirty trash cans. But when you’re dealing with house flies, fruit flies, drain flies, and many other small flies, finding and eliminating the breeding source is usually the key.
As a pest control operator, I can treat the flies that are present, but long-term fly control takes both pest control AND proper sanitation.
I’ve walked into businesses where people have spent hundreds of dollars trying to get rid of flies, when the actual problem was old food debris underneath a piece of equipment or a dirty floor drain.
Find the source, eliminate the source, and you’ll eliminate most of your fly problem!
🪰 RJ’s Pest & Termite
📞 859-435-2494
Got Bugs? Call RJ!
