I just saw an article headline about how to get houseflies out of the house. It was all the usual ways of killing them or trying to keep them out in the first place. Yet it didn’t consider the one solution that actually works and doesn’t kill the flies.

I realize I’m probably not going to convince most people that the lives of these insects matter, but they do. Every life matters. That’s my perspective. Yet even if you don’t agree, there is a way to keep the flies alive and keep them out of your house.

I tried the option of hanging a water bag in the doorway to try and keep them out. It didn’t work at all.

I don’t like traps. I think it’s horrible to trap things and allow them to die slowly. Torture.

I realized that flies always die in the windows when they get stuck in the house. One day it occurred to me that they do this because they want to get out. They don’t want to be in the house any more than we want them in the house.

This got me thinking. What if I opened the corner of the screen to let them out? Obviously, people put screens in to keep insects out, but they don’t fly into tiny openings in the corner of windows. They fly in big openings like open doors or windows without screens.

I started opening the corners of my screens. I did it in all my rooms. Since then, no flies. They get in, but then they get back out, like they want to. No poisons to kill them. No horrible traps for them to stick to and then to dispose of, or horrible traps to suffer and die a slow death. No hanging things in doorways hoping they won’t fly by.

I have lived in three houses now where I did this. It worked in all of them. It has not resulted in creatures coming in the corners. It has resulted in fewer flies in my house.