How To Get rid of Hoverflies: 5 Simple Methods
Want to know how to get rid of hoverflies buzzing around your patio and house? We’ll show you five effective ways to repel these annoying flies. You’ll also learn what attracts hoverflies and why you don’t want to kill them!
In A Hurry? Here’s Our Top 5 Ways to Get Rid Of Hoverflies
- Use a fan
- Use Smoke
- Burn a Citronella Candle or Incense
- Use Plants With Nectar and Pollen
- Control the Food Source of the Larva
I love getting out into my garden and relaxing on the patio is my idea of bliss. But, I am not a big fan of insects that hover around me. When my middle son was still a toddler, we had a rather nasty encounter with some hornets that left us both shaken. Since then, I get very anxious anytime something buzzes around me. There is the initial scare as I try to figure out if this winged nuisance has a stinger. Once over that, I still find it annoying when they fly around my face.
Hoverflies are one of the worst offenders and I really do not want the things buzzing around me. How about you? The only problem? They are actually helpful insects so, we don’t want to kill them if we can help it. So, what can we do about them?
In this post I will share 6 different methods for getting rid of hoverflies from patios or decks. Five of these will do this without hurting them.
Before we start, let’s take a quick look at this insect.
What is a Hoverfly?
Hoverflies, also known as flower flies, belong to the insect Syrphidae family. They can be anywhere from 1/4 inch to 1 1/4 inch in size and have a variety of patterns. The most common is a yellow and black patterning but they can also have red, orange, or brown markings. They often resemble wasps or sweat bees but do not have stingers.
Hoverflies, get their name because they hover in midair. They do this by vibrating their wings rapidly. These bugs can be an annoyance as they are often mistaken for other stinging insects. To make matter worse, they will also buzz around your face and get in the way.
The Benefits of Hoverflies
Hoverflies are beneficial in the garden. The adult Hoverflies feeds on nectar and pollen. Thus, they play an important role in pollination of flowers and plants. We are living in a world where pollinators are disappearing. We don’t want to eliminate hoverflies completely. Even if they are annoying!
Hoverfly larvae mostly eat aphids. But they also eat caterpillars, small thrips and other small insects like beetles. A single larva can consume up to 400 aphids over two weeks. That is a lot of aphids! Scientists are looking at using hoverfly larva as natural pest control for commercial vegetable growers.
So, you can see we do not want to get rid of these insects completely. Instead, we need to keep them out of our face and off the patio. There are some easy ways to manage and get rid of hoverflies without killing them. We’ve scoured the Internet to find the best methods.
How to Get Rid of Hover Flies Without Killing Them
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Use a Fan
It doesn’t get much easier than turning on a fan. Have you noticed the absence of bugs on a breezy day? The airflow keeps them at bay and away from you. The fan duplicates a natural breeze. Turn the fan on and the hoverflies will no longer be able to fly around properly. The benefit of this method is two-fold
- No pesticides, creams, or sprays
- It also gets rid of other winged nuisances
If the hoverflies are on your patio and you have an outlet, you can use a corded fan. But, a decent battery-operated fan will also work.
Finding this post helpful? See all our wildlife and animal posts.
How to Get Rid of Hoverflies by Using Smoke
Have you noticed that a campfire is a good way to repel insects? The smoke from campfires effectively repels mosquitoes, flies and other bugs. If you have the space a wood burning patio fire pit might just do the trick.
Burning Incense or Candles
If it is not practical to have a fire on your patio, there are several ways to create smoke.
The simplest and safest methods is to burn citronella candles or incense. The smell and smoke will have your flies fleeing in the opposite direction. As an added bonus they can also reduce the number of mosquito bites you get.
Here are a few products that might help
You can also burn these tabletop torches that burn a specially formulated torch oil. Fill them with Citronella tiki oil for 5 hours of burning time.
Strategically Use Plants That Attract Them
The plants that attract hoverflies to your garden can hep keep them away from your patio. This technique works best when you also do something that drives hoverflies away. Such as using a fan or smoke.
The goal is to make the outdoor living space unattractive to hoverflies. While at the same time, ensuring another area of the garden is irresistible. You do this by planting flowers to attract them in another place. The back border of your property would be ideal. The hoverflies are repelled from the patio and attracted to other flowers.
What plants do hoverflies love? Susan Mahr is the coordinator for the University of Wisconsin Master Gardener program. She reports that hover flies favor the following plants. Queen Anne’s lace, wild mustard, sweet alyssum, coriander, dill, and other small-flowered herbs.
Do you seem to have a bad infestation of hoverflies in your outdoor living spaces? Consider moving any pots of small, fragrant, or brightly colored flowers from the area until you have it under control.
Control the Food Source of the Larva
Plants infested with aphids will attract Hoverflies. Females will lay their eggs on those plants. If you can remove this food source, then hoverflies will go elsewhere. There are many methods from using ladybugs to insecticides. Here are some helpful ideas.
How to Get rid of Hoverflies With Repellents and Insecticides
These are our least favored methods for getting rid of hoverflies. You will notice we did not include them in our top five. The commercial fly repellents are often toxic. They kill beneficial insects such as hoverflies and bees. We would also be hesitant to use them around pets and children. The natural repellents show promise, but there are problems with quality control. Still, this method is worth a closer look.
Commercial Fly Repellent
One of the most effective ways to get rid of hover flies is to send them flying in the opposite direction. Repellents are substances that keep insects away. Most commercial insect repellents are also insecticides, so use them with care.
You are looking for products called outdoor insect foggers. One application should last for an evening. Please note that most of them are designed to kill the insects. They are also toxic.
Spray the area from 4 to 6 feet away. This includes furniture legs, deck railings and screens. Do not spray table-tops or chair seats. Keep children or pets away from the sprayed area until it has dried. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after spraying.
Try a Natural Fly Repellent With Essential Oils
Essential oils are complex mixtures of chemicals that come from plants. They are often responsible for the distinctive taste and/or smell of plants. There are a variety of ways of extracting these oils. These include things like pressing, distilling, and steaming.
Scientists have studied the repellent properties of these oils. Mostly to protect livestock from harmful insects. None of these studies looked specifically at hoverflies. This is because they are not considered a threat. They may be annoying, but they do not bite, sting, or carry disease.
The Case For Essential Oils
Let’s take a brief look at a few studies.
- Peppermint oil was found to be the best repellent for house flies followed by Eucalyptus. They had repellency rates of 86% and 76%
- Another study found that citronella essential oil repelled many insects.
- A review found that the most effective oils are citronella, eucalyptus, and catnip oil.
The Case Against Essential Oils
It all sounds very promising, and we understand the appeal. Essential-oil insect repellents sound brilliant. How wonderful to repel hoverflies with nothing more than the natural oil from plants. Still, after research, we are cautious about recommending them for repelling hover flies. Let’s take a closer look
We couldn’t find any studies that targeted hoverflies specifically. Most of the studies were focused on mosquitos or insects that bite livestock and destroy crops.
The purity of essential oils varies greatly. It depends how they are prepared and what concentration is extracted. The scientists conducting these studies made their own essential oils. They also tested them to make sure they contained the specific concentrations.
Commercially available essential oils are not regulated. This means we do not know for sure what we’re buying. There is no way that most of us can confirm that the claims of the manufacturers are correct. No outside agency is testing those products to verify those claims.
The second problem is that essential oils are volatile. This means they evaporate very quickly. This is a major problem. One study found that most oils were gone between 30 minutes and 2 hours.
Still despite these problems, there are many people who swear by them. If you are interested, why not test them out? They are not toxic, and you will have something that smells lovely. You can find 11 different recipes here. Remember peppermint, Citronella and Eucalyptus oils seem to be the most effective repellents.
If you don’t want to make your own, you can buy some sprays ready mixed like this Lemon Eucalyptus spray.
A Quick Guide to Hoverflies
What are Hoverflies attracted to?
The adults need flowers as nectar and pollen sources. Hoverflies appear to use vision to select a floral feeding site. This means color appears to be an important cue in helping them find food. Yellow and white seemed to be particular favorites. One study found the following flowers attracted the most hoverflies
- Fennel
- Chamomile
- Coriander
- St John’s Wort
- Yarrow,
- Cosmos
- Petunia
Do Hoverflies bite or sting?
Hoverflies are perfectly harmless. They may mimic stinging insects like wasps or yellowjackets. However, they do not have a stinger. Their mouths are adapted to extract pollen and nectar, so they lack the means to bite you. They are only interested in pollen and food sources for their larva.
Why do Hoverflies look like wasps?
Hoverflies are often mistaken for wasps because they mimic their appearance and behavior. This is a defense mechanism. It protects them from predators who can not tell them apart from their dangerous cousins.
Quick Identification Tip
You can tell the difference between Hoverflies and wasps by checking their wings. Hoverflies have a single pair of wings. Wasps have two pairs of wings. Wasps also have a visible stinger.
We trust that the method’s we’ve outlined in this post will help you get rid of hoverflies in your outdoor living areas! We also hope you’ve learned some more about this beneficial insect and why you don’t want to kill them. Have you found any other methods that work? Drop us a line you’re your recommendations. If this article has been helpful, please share it on social media or email the link to friends.