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You are here: Home / Meditation / Incense / Does Incense Repel Flies?

Last Updated: May 6, 2022 by Robert Alvarado

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Does Incense Repel Flies?

Flies are pesky insects and they are quite persistent when they’re around. You can fight these flies by using incense, which works as a great fly repellent.

Let’s look at how you can repel flies with incense.

We know that flies spread bacteria that causes sickness – a fly will land on garbage or something equally unpleasant in the street, then fly into your home and land on your food – and there are many ways to get rid of the flies from your house.

But some of these, like insect sprays can be harmful and allergenic, and despite the manufacturers giving their sprays pleasant floral names, none of them smell very good.

Fortunately incense also works as a great fly repellent. Flies have an excellent sense of smell, in fact houseflies have been proven to be able to detect smells from up to four miles away, so it is a matter of finding which incense the flies like least, and will act as a deterrent.

To understand how this works, we need to know that over time many plants have evolved their own natural insecticides, to keep bugs away.

When the essential oils are extracted from these plants and used to make incense, the insect repelling properties are active in the incense smoke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyajrxpEWiI
Video: Murphy’s Naturals Mosquito Repellent Incense Cones

One of the best known of these is patchouli, which has been used as an insect deterrent for centuries.

Other very effective types of incense are made from such plants as cinnamon, clove, lavender, eucalyptus and citronella.

These are available as individual incense sticks or are sometimes found as a blend of several fragrances.

Burning some of these will guarantee the flies will stay away, and at the same fill your home with pleasant, refreshing odors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az53JYWxmAo
Video: Garden Maintenance : How to Repel Flies With Herbs

Parting Words

When you have a house full of people, with a lot of food, it doesn’t take long for flies to find you, and enjoy the feast.

They are attracted by the smells of food, humans, and waste. So, fly-borne diseases are common around the world.

Incense can serve as an excellent tool for keeping your home free of bugs and I think it’s a nice alternative to chemicals.

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Author Bio


Hi, I'm Robert Alvarado, blogger and content strategist at the Budding Buddhist. Born in Spain, migrated to the United States in 2005, earned an MBA, worked and lived in South East Asia (Myanmar, Thailand), and now living quietly in Cebu City, Philippines as a ‘digital nomad’.
I trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction while living in Madrid. Training was under the supervision of a qualified Mindfulness teacher at Mindfulness Spain.Read More…

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