Homemade Fly Spray Recipe | The Prairie Homestead (2024)

161 Comments | Jill Winger | Last Updated: May 26, 2020

Learn how to make your own homemade fly spray recipe. This is a wonderful natural fly spray that will help prevent flies around your homestead and while you work with your livestock. You can relax knowing that it’s made with natural and safe ingredients instead of unknown chemicals.

You know how in the book of Exodus, one of the ten plagues was massive amounts of flies?

When I was younger, I always thought “Well, that one wouldn’t be THAT bad…”

I take it back.

A few years ago, we had massive amounts of flies. It was a constant battle to keep them off of my animals, out of my food, and off of my baby… (It got so bad, I even got bug nets for the playpen!)

Of course, the typical solution is to use hardcore chemicals and sprays to drive the flies away.

I just don’t feel good about doing that anymore.

Especially when I’m milking my cow.

I know from experience with my horses, whenever you apply fly spray, it gets everywhere. On your hands, on your clothes, in your mouth. I don’t want thosechemicals floating anywhere near my lovely raw milk.

So I started experimenting with homemade fly spray recipes. Last year I tried a few white vinegar/dish soap/mouth wash concoctions. While they sorta worked, I wasn’t super impressed with any of them.

This homemade fly spray recipe with essential oils works much better.

More Natural Fly Control Tips for Your Homestead

I kinda feel like a pro when it comes to natural fly control these days. We deal with them. A lot. So I’ve written about my natural fly control strategies plenty of times.

Here’s some more tips for you:

• Need insect repellent recipes for the humans in your life? I’ve got ya covered. Here are 20+ recipes to keep the bugs from biting.
• I don’t use homemade fly spray on my chickens, BUT, I do a variety of things to control flies in my chicken coop.
• Got flies in the house? Try using my homemade fly trap which is easy to make and works really well.
• Want to reduce the flies around your homestead? Try implementing these 4 natural strategies for farm fly control.

Homemade Fly Spray Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 cups raw apple cider vinegar (where to buy raw apple cider vinegar)OR make your own vinegar
• 20 drops rosemary essential oil (where to buy my favorite essential oils)
• 20 drops basilessential oil
• 20 drops peppermint essential oil
• 2 tablespoons liquid oil (olive oil, canola oil, or mineral oil will work)
• 1 tablespoon dish soap (Like this one)

Directions:

Mix together in a spray bottle. Apply to the animals frequently (give it a good shake before applying). And be careful, it smells strong. Whew!

The final verdict?

It works. But if you are expecting your homemade fly spray to be like conventional fly sprays lasting for several days, you will be disappointed.

From my observations, it repels the flies, it doesn’t kill them. I had to apply 1-2x per day for maximum effectiveness,but at least it provided temporary relief without chemicals. I will definitely beusing it during my milking routine and on my horses and goats, too.

Notes:

• If you don’t have access to raw apple cider vinegar, you can still use pasteurized apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. I just think the raw goodness packs an extra punch.
• Speaking of vinegar, if you have any glass quart-sized vinegar jars hanging around, often you can screw on a spray top for a cool glass spray bottle.
• If you don’t have these exact essential oils, no worries. There are TONS of oils that repel insects including lavender, tea tree, pine, citronella, arborvitae, thyme, etc. Feel free to play around and mix and match.
• Try this really cool Mason Jar Lid Sprayer Cap in order to mix up this spray in any old mason jar you have laying around! (affiliate link)

Watch Me Make This Homemade Fly Spray!

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