How to Get Rid of Flies and Flying Insects

Nothing ruins a summer BBQ faster than relentless flies buzzing around your food. From house flies contaminating your kitchen to mosquitoes making outdoor entertaining unbearable, flying insects put a damper on the summer fun.

If you’re wondering how to get rid of flies and flying insects this summer, our guide covers everything you need to know, from identifying the culprit to when to call the experts in. Let’s get started!

Why Flies and Flying Insects are More Than Just Annoying

Constant buzzing is frustrating enough. But the real problem with flies and flying insects goes far beyond being a nuisance.

Flies are disease carriers. They land on rubbish, animal waste, and decomposing matter before touching down on your kitchen benchtops, fresh food, and dining areas. A single house fly can carry over a hundred different pathogens—including salmonella, E. coli, and various parasites that cause food poisoning and gastrointestinal issues.

Their breeding cycle is also alarmingly fast. Fruit flies can go from egg to adult in just 8-10 days, meaning a few flies can quickly turn into hundreds within a fortnight. House flies aren’t much slower, completing their entire lifecycle in roughly two weeks during the summer.

Fortunately, understanding what type of flying insect you’re dealing with is the first step in getting rid of them for good.

Common Flying Insects in New Zealand

Here are the six most common flying pests you’re likely to encounter in and around your Wellington home:

House Flies

House flies are the most common you’ll encounter. They’re grey-bodied insects, about 6-7mm long, with distinctive red eyes and four dark stripes running down their thorax. You’ll find them buzzing around kitchens, rubbish bins, pet food bowls, and anywhere you’re preparing or storing food—they’re particularly attracted to sweet and fermented substances.

What makes them particularly problematic is their feeding behaviour. House flies can’t chew solid food, so they vomit digestive juices onto it first before they suck up the liquified result. Every time they land, they spread bacteria from whatever they’ve previously touched.

Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are tiny—only 2-3mm long—with tan or light brown bodies and distinctive bright red eyes. Despite their size, they’re impossible to miss when they’re hovering in small clouds around your fruit bowls.

They love overripe bananas, uncleaned drains, rubbish bins, and even damp mops or cleaning cloths. They’re particularly active during the summer when fruit ripens quickly. And with their rapid breeding cycle, a few fruit flies around the fruit bowl on Monday could become a full-blown infestation by the weekend.

Blow Flies

Blow flies are bigger than your average house fly, measuring about 10-14mm—you’ll recognise them from their distinctive metallic blue/green bodies and persistent buzzing.

Blow flies are specifically attracted to meat, dead animals, and other decomposing matter. Finding them can be a warning sign that something has died in your roof void, wall cavity, or subfloor. If you’re seeing multiple in your home, particularly around the same areas, it’s time to investigate. A dead animal in a cavity usually means a rodent problem behind it, so it is worth reading up on rodent control if this sounds like your situation.

Drain Flies

Drain flies are small, fuzzy flying insects, about 2-4mm in size. They hold their wings in a distinctive roof-like shape when resting on walls near sinks and showers.

These pests breed in the organic slime found inside your drains (gross!)—making them common in bathrooms, kitchens, and laundries. While they don’t bite or spread disease, their presence indicates gunk buildup in your pipes. You can usually get rid of these little guys with regular drain cleaning.

Sandflies

Sandflies are tiny biting insects. At just 2-3mm long, with grey or black bodies, they’re most common on the coast and in wetland and bush areas.

Unlike other flies, sandflies leave itchy and painful bites, making outdoor activities miserable, especially in the early mornings and evenings when they’re most active. Insect repellent and fine mesh screens are your best defence against these annoying visitors.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are the buzzing menaces that ruin your summer nights. These slender flying insects are 3-6mm long and have a distinctive whining sound that drives you crazy at night. Females bite, leaving itchy, raised welts that last for days. While our mosquitoes don’t carry diseases like malaria, their bites are incredibly annoying.

They breed in standing water—places like pot plant saucers, blocked gutters, bird baths, and any container catching rainwater. Learning how to get rid of flies and flying insects, like mosquitoes, starts with eliminating standing water around your home.

Prevention: Keeping Flies Out of Your Space

Eliminate Food Sources

Flying insects are drawn to food. Store food in sealed containers, clean spills and crumbs immediately, and never leave dirty dishes in the sink overnight. Empty your rubbish bins daily during summer, and keep pet bowls covered when you’re not using them.

Remove Breeding Sites

Check for and remove standing water around your property. Clean your drains regularly to eliminate organic buildup, remove rotting fruit from trees, keep compost bins sealed and away from the house, and check roofs and subfloors for dead animals if you’re seeing blowflies around.

Block Entry Points

Install or repair fly screens on your windows and doors, and consider fitting door seals to eliminate gaps under doors. Seal cracks around pipes, cables, and window frames using the appropriate filler, and keep doors and windows closed during peak fly activity—particularly around dawn and dusk.

General Cleanliness

Make a habit of wiping benchtops and surfaces after meals, sweeping floors regularly to remove crumbs, and eating fruit before it can overripen. Clean behind appliances each season, wash recycling bins to remove residue, and keep your outdoor eating areas clean. Small, consistent habits make a massive difference in deterring flying insects.

DIY vs. Professional Fly Control

For minor fly problems, you can take a DIY method. Fly traps, surface sprays, and good hygiene practices can help with the occasional house fly or small fruit fly issues—though sticky traps aren’t nice to look at, and aerosol sprays leave you inhaling chemicals throughout summer. If you’re dealing with just a few flies and can identify the source, you can likely sort it yourself.

If your prevention efforts aren’t working, or you can’t find where the flies are coming from, that’s where professional help earns its place. Our fly control treatment is a surface application to the areas flies land and rest, using a broad-spectrum pyrethroid and synergist so they drop and stay down, protecting your home for six months or more.

Just as important, we investigate your property to identify where flies are feeding and breeding, and give you specific recommendations to remove those sources based on what we find at your place. For pests like sandflies and mosquitoes, that source work is often the bigger part of the answer than any spray. The treatment is backed by a six-month warranty, and if flies get through we come back at no charge.

If you’ve been dealing with these pests for a while and are still wondering how to get rid of flies and flying insects for good, professional pest control is your answer.

Keep Your Property Fly-Free with Combat Pest Control

Getting rid of flies and flying insects comes down to prevention, quick action, and knowing when the issue is beyond DIY control. But when prevention isn’t enough, and flies keep coming back, it’s time to stop battling the problem alone.

Ready to reclaim your space? Book a treatment today with Combat Pest Control, and we’ll help keep your space pest-free!