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I'm very concerned about food safety, but at the same time, I like to keep windows open when I cook to get in a lot of fresh air.

Unfortunately, this has the bad effect of allowing flies to swarm in. Lately, I've been having to cook with all my windows closed, and this makes the air in the room extremely stuffy and very uncomfortable to work in.

Is there anything I can use to keep flies out of my kitchen when I cook?

yuritsuki
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    Am I missing something obvious? Why not put screens in the windows? – user5561 Aug 24 '14 at 01:12
  • @user5561 They get past that, I have no idea how. All I know is that even with screens (which only mitigated the issue slightly), flies can somehow get past that into my kitchen, and is quite annoying to deal with (and especially unsafe for food lying around) – yuritsuki Aug 24 '14 at 01:14
  • Interesting, I often cook with the windows open and never have issues (unless they come in when I open the door) - maybe you have a gap or hole somewhere? – user5561 Aug 24 '14 at 01:16
  • @user5561 That's highly location-dependent. Despite them being an obviously good idea, I have never seen fly screens in the UK and many people's windows open outwards, which makes them impossible anyway. – David Richerby Aug 24 '14 at 08:51
  • [Why Fruit Flies Are So Hard To Kill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O9K3TdejJs) –  May 18 '19 at 12:42

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A few fly traps can help matters tremendously. Take a plastic bottle, like for water or soda, and slice it in two just below the neck. Now take the neck of the bottle, invert it, and place it inside the base of the bottle. Add a few centimeters of "bait". When I had a terrible fly problem last year, I learned that flies really like the energy drink "Rock Star". Go figure.

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After a couple of days with three traps in my kitchen, I no longer had a problem.

Community
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Jolenealaska
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  • I bought corn (on the cob?) with flies a few weeks ago (a hidden charge). A similar trap but with **red wine vinegar** worked really well for me. This is probably not the same kind of flies OP is asking about. I have never worried about a summertime fly being close to my cooking. – Captain Giraffe Aug 24 '14 at 00:47
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    Mine were "brought in" too, but flies are flies. Put something out that smells better to them than your food and you can trap them. – Jolenealaska Aug 24 '14 at 00:53
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    Add a little detergent to the liquid in the trap, too. The decreased surface tension means the flies definitely can't get out, whereas the inverted neck of the bottle only means that they probably can't get out. – David Richerby Aug 24 '14 at 08:47
  • @DavidRicherby Nice tip! – Jolenealaska Aug 24 '14 at 08:49
  • Different types of flys need different types of bait. For example, Green Bottle Flies (aka Blow Fly) lay eggs on meat, and thus need something meaty. You should be able to find pre-constructed flytraps at a hardware store. – john3103 Aug 25 '14 at 18:50
  • Bait definitely should be customized to your particular flies, but I prefer recycling a bottle to buying a pre-constructed trap. – Jolenealaska Aug 26 '14 at 05:37
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This might not solve your problem, but some foods when cooked attract a lot of flies (specially cabbage :-)). What I do when cooking such foods to repel flies is to dust some fine white pepper on the lid of the pot. This works like a charm

Pieter Goosen
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Air curtains (used in most commercial kitchens) - http://www.grainger.com/category/air-curtains/blowers/hvac-and-refrigeration/ecatalog/N-lwq

Vivek Shah
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    Somehow, I think people are going to prefer a plastic bottle and some soda to a $700 piece of equipment. – MrLore Aug 24 '14 at 04:18