Bars of Irish Spring soap are marketed as a product to, you know, Repel Flies With Soap keep yourself clean. But according to the internet, these bars of soap have several other uses. Some websites claim that the soap keeps away mice, while others say it keeps away deer. One of the most popular assertions, however, is that Irish Spring Soap can be used to repel flies.
Repel Flies With Irish Spring Soap
Houseflies are annoying at this time of year although they usually don't pose much of a danger. At this particular time of the year, the scenes of those chasing a folded newspaper, perhaps a fly that crept into the room to disturb its inhabitants, are repeated. Some may resort to insecticides, but they are not without risks to human health, especially young children, not to mention the procedures for isolating the room before spraying the pesticide. Want to get rid of pesky houseflies without chasing after folded newspaper or insecticide? It's simple, there are many ways to get rid of flies and their annoying buzzing in the house.
Irish Spring Soap
Has anyone else noticed how bad flies are this year? Well I googled how to keep them away and….. who knew Irish spring original scent would really work???? I’m amazed lol. Easily amazed I guess. Dad and me sit on the back porch a lot and dad even had a fly swatted out here with him bc they where so bad. Hung one bar of Irish spring and shocked how quickly and well it works. Thought I would share for anyone else annoyed with the flies
The claim that Irish Spring soap repels flies has been amplified by a variety of home and gardening websites, such as grandmasthing.com, Homemaking.com, and even Buzzfeed.
We’re skeptical of this fly repellent solution for a few reasons. For starters, the sources we found pushing this claim don’t provide much information as to why this works. Instead, the blogs offer vague and unsupported claims about how flies apparently don’t like the smell. But that just doesn’t pass the sniff test.
Repel Flies With Soap
Second, if Colgate-Palmolive, the company that owns the Irish Spring brand, truly had their hands on an effective insect repellent, why wouldn’t they market it as such? Why wouldn’t they make a product specifically targeting this need?
Lastly, we have not found any credible studies or experiments documenting whether hanging a bar of Irish Spring Soap effectively repelled flies. In fact, the only unofficial experiment found appeared to show the exact opposite. In June 2021, the Pine Meadows Hobby Farm, a frugal homestead in the Cascade Mountains that creates video tutorials for their YouTube page, posted a little experiment to see if Irish Spring Soap truly repelled flies. The results? The soap did not seem to have any impact on the pest problem:
Effective Method To Repel Flies
Ventilation and strong airflow
Houseflies naturally love a place without drafts, so you can get rid of them if you expose the house to a draft and open the window to get them out. But hey! Do not open windows exposed to sunlight, as then more houseflies, who love to be in warm sunny places, will enter.
Volatile oils
Some volatile essential oils can help you get rid of houseflies, for example, by putting them in an incense burner. Insects do not tolerate some perfumes, which prompts them to move away from the place and search for another, and among these volatile oils:
- Mint
- Basil
- Eucalyptus
Plants are corrosive to meat
From the label, this homemade recipe for getting rid of flies sounds a bit brutal. You don't need to pot these plants in the enclosed winter garden, balcony, or on the windowsill inside the apartment, and they will do the rest. As it works to attract flies in order to prey on it, and among these plants:
- Pitcher plant
- Sundio
- Saracinian
Household trap
If all previous solutions fail to eliminate house flies, you can get rid of them with an easy trap that you can make with materials available in almost every home, but remember that this trap will not expel flies, but rather kill them! All you need is a beaker or a shallow bowl, vinegar, sugar, and a little dishwashing detergent, which will loosen the surface tension of the water. Flies cannot resist the vinegar and sugar, which will attract them to the pot, where they will slip into and drown in the deadly mixture. There is a similar recipe using honey, water and dish detergent.
Prevention is better than cure
Apart from the harshness of some solutions, it is possible to work to immunize the house from flies by installing grilles on the windows and not leaving leftovers in the house during the hot months in particular, and wiping the table immediately after eating, getting rid of the crumbs of fallen food, and washing used utensils first. And put the waste in a closed container. You may be lucky if the flies decide to bother your neighbor instead.
