Fight the Filthy Fly Month is a month-long campaign running through June, which raises awareness about the sanitary and health hazards that flies carry and how to help you keep these pests away from your surroundings. Flies tend to carry disease and filth with them, which can cause various problems for your living environment, and the health of both you and your pets. Fight the Filthy Fly Month reminds you to keep a lookout for these troublesome fliers and be aware of what can happen when you’re not looking.
History of Fight the Filthy Fly Month
A menace to houses, eating establishments, and animals alike, flies unscrupulously make themselves at home around uncovered food, garbage, and moisture, as they look for easy sources of sustenance to sustain their month-long lifespan. Usually active during warmer seasons, flies of various kinds are found in warm areas where unpleasant stenches come to the fore.
Conditions that attract these pesky critters include garbage cans or garbage that has been left out improperly, rotting fruit or uncovered food, spilled liquids that cause stagnant puddles, and animal remains in the yard or in between your house foundations, and the uncleaned insides of drains. Given their rapid reproduction rate, flies can swiftly appear without warning and might overwhelm areas of your house or business if kept unchecked.
Flies are very effective carriers of disease because of their habit of hanging around filthy areas and feeding on garbage and droppings. Their role in nature is to mainly break down and consume garbage, decaying plants, and animal carcasses as a way to speed up the decomposition process. However, after they’re done, they are free and agile enough to fly anywhere they can, even into your surroundings. When abundant, flies pose a serious risk to your health as they can transmit diseases easily through their contaminated bodies onto your skin or through your food. These illnesses include diarrhea, typhoid, meningitis, hepatitis, food poisoning, and many others.
Many preventive measures can be taken to eradicate them from your surroundings, from covering potential fly-attracting areas, using bug spray, planting specific plants in your garden, and cleaning up after your pets to calling pest control when the problem gets out of hand. Fight the Filthy Fly Month reminds us to keep our surroundings and our environment clean and fly-free.
Fight the Filthy Fly Month timeline
The first ancestors of winged insects appear.
French monk St. Leutfridus, known as the "patron saint" of flies, is born.
English poet William Blake pens his famous "The Fly" poem, using flies as a metaphor for mortality.
The U.S. Government issues the Food Quality Protection Act, which regulates pest prevention efforts in dining establishments.
Fight the Filthy Fly Month FAQs
How do you get rid of flies without killing them?
If you want a more peaceful way to rid your house of flies, you can simply try and direct the flies out of your window or wait until they land on a surface before catching them in something airtight like a jar or plastic cup.
Do fly traps attract more flies?
Flytraps do tend to attract more flies, but that is generally the point. Flies are visually attracted to these traps, which tend to be bright and curiosity-inducing, and are also lured by the scent.
What does it mean when you have a lot of flies in your house?
If you notice an abundance of flies in your surrounding area, it might be because of the poor sanitary conditions in that corner of your house, or maybe unsealed cracks in your windows or walls that are attracting them from the outside.
Fight the Filthy Fly Month Activities
Take preventive steps
There are a variety of methods to help keep flies away from your surroundings. Some methods, such as using fly swatters, installing zappers, glue traps, or even lighting an open candle on your dinner table can help deter these fliers from zooming around unwanted areas.
Sanitize your surroundings
Make sure that all odor-emitting foods are covered, garbage cans are shut, rotting fruit is thrown away, puddles mopped, and gardens regularly sprayed to prevent conditions that can attract flies.
Spread the word
Take to your social media pages to remind everyone about Fight the Filthy Fly Month. Doing so will help spread awareness and help remind others to keep their environments free of flies.
5 Fascinating Facts About Flies
Nifty natural repellents
Some plants such as lavender, basil, mint, and wormwood can help naturally deter flies when planted or placed in your garden.
Some don't bite but are still dangerous
House flies generally don't bite but, upon landing on human skin, their presence can transmit filth and disease.
It's all in the eyes
Flies tend to fly around the eyes of horses because their eye secretions are thought to be sweet.
Productive reproduction
A female housefly can lay up to 500 eggs in one lifetime.
Diversity in numbers
There are more than 120,000 different species of flies found globally, with many more yet to be recorded.
Why We Love Fight the Filthy Fly Month
It reminds us to keep our surroundings clean
Fight the Filthy Fly Month is a reminder for us to keep our surroundings clean to make them unattractive for flies to inhabit. Cleaning our homes and gardens is one step towards a more comfortable and healthier life.
It educates us
The month-long campaign can also help us understand more about the health hazards that flies may bring when their presence is not addressed. Understanding the conditions that may bring unpleasant bouts of salmonella, diarrhea and other diseases can help us avoid contracting them.
It helps keep our mealtimes worry-free
Without flies ruining the experience, we can eat and enjoy our meals in peace. If the right steps are taken, you shouldn't worry about having your food contaminated by unwanted pests, and Fight the Filthy Fly Month helps remind us to always keep our food preparation process clean.
Fight the Filthy Fly Month dates
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | June 1 | Saturday |
| 2025 | June 1 | Sunday |
| 2026 | June 1 | Monday |
| 2027 | June 1 | Tuesday |
| 2028 | June 1 | Thursday |
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