How To Stop Flies Ruining Your Barbecue?
It’s not long until the weekend, and people across the country will be dusting off their charcoal grills and stocking up on burgers for their barbecues. You need to make the most of the quick British summer, but to make your event rock, your garden needs to be buzzing with atmosphere, not house flies or fruit flies. Insects are everywhere this time of year and will be attracted to all the covered food that is offered. In this article, we are going to see how to stop flies ruining your barbecue.
Flies carry over a hundred pathogens
There’s nothing worse than a fly problem around you while you’re eating. Even worse, flies can spread disease when they land on food, capable of carrying more than 100 pathogens, including dysentery, salmonella, and parasitic worms.
Unlike mosquitoes which transmit pathogens to human health through their saliva, houseflies transmit pathogens on their legs and body.
The main reason flies are attracted to BBQ is the smell of the food you are cooking. Houseflies can detect scents from nearly 4 miles away. This means that after you put the food on the smoker, the flies will slowly get to your smoker over time. Flies are also attracted to smoke while cooking.
Flies taste with their feet on the food, which means they crawl over the food and then they liquefy it with regenerated food and saliva, and basically, they vomit on it. Make sure to store food, at least to keep those germs away from spreading.
And if that wasn’t horrible enough, they might as well poop on it while they’re at it. And, of course, before they get down on your burgers, chicken drumsticks, and sausages, they might be rummaging around the trash can or feeding any dog mess on the street.
When a fly eats, it usually poops, and if it’s a female, it may also lay eggs. The longer a fly stays in your food, the more likely it is to transfer harmful bacteria, viruses, and parasites. If a fly lands on your food, if you wipe it off immediately, the food will be safe to eat.
How to Stop flies Ruining your Barbecue?
Flies can be repelled by taking preventative measures such as,
- All meals should be covered (barbecue or not)
- Clean up liquid spills immediately
- Ensuring that all dustbins have tightly fitting lids
- Cleaning up your pet’s poop is a perfect breeding ground for flies
There are many different types of products available in pest control shops that help you get rid of flies. Some popular choices for fly repellents include basil, bay leaf, cedar, cinnamon, citrus, citronella, cloves, cucumber slices or peels, lavender, marigold, peppermint, pine, rosemary, and vanilla oils and air fresheners.
Conclusion
Above listed are some of the DIY methods on how to stop flies ruining your barbecue. We hope this article helps you to get rid of flies. If you think you have a serious problem, you may hire a professional pest control service the fly infestation.