Hi.
I was wondering if there is anything I can plant in a pot to put by my back doors that tells flies they are not wanted and will discourage them?My G/son absolutely hates flies and the noise they make so please can some one help!! thanks Doreen

Planting pyrethrum plants which have a bright yellow flower. This is usually the main ingredient in fly spray and they really hate it. I had one on my window sill in the kitchen by the open window and no problems with flies coming in that window but if the door was open in they came. It gives off a strange aroma!!!!

Helen CB

I know that lavendar is supposedly effective at warding off mosquitoes but is it the same for houseflies?

and another one I heard, but don't know if it works, is growing mint by the doors/windows where flies may enter, but can't verify that one.

I heard Basil.....

Garlic!

Why not get a flyscreen installed? Stops mozzies and moths too.

I put a saucer of warm vinegar by the door when cooking. It seems to keep the flies out. Otherwise I am plagued by those huge hairy brownish ones. They hate the smell of the vinegar.

Lorna

I'd go with the screens any day. We had them installed 23 years ago, and they are still keeping the bugs out just fine... as long as I can get people to shut the doors after themselves. We have had to replace the net on the ranch slider once, due to a child poking the handlebars of their tricycle through the mesh.... and a couple of screens are starting to come away along the bottom edge, but replacing the mesh is not that difficult... or at least it didn't seem that way, when I watched my husband do it.
Expensive, yes, but when you see how long they last for, if you take a little care, worth every single cent.

Kaye's story reminded me of a similar incident. We used to have a pet black kune kune pig, who was very rotund (we named him Portly). Most days we'd take him for a leisurely walk around the section, at his very slow Portly pace. Then came the day, for reasons still unknown, he decided to run, at an astonishing speed, straight for the house door, which was open but had a closed flyscreen door on it. Straight through the flyscreen he went, as though it wasn't even there, and by the time we had overcome our astonishment and run after him, he was halfway down the hallway, heading for who knows where. The resulting huge hole in the mesh filled us with laughter every time we looked at it.

I pick mint and put it in vases along with some lavender, just to make it look pretty but anything would do, and have it on window sills around the kitchen and lounge. I pinch abit to get the smell going whenever I pass by and not only does it smell nice and fresh, it keeps the mint down in the garden and from what I can see, the flies have definitely diminished.

What was it Mark Twain said? The Lord dosn't make anything in vain, but the fly comes AWFULLY close!
Cheers