My genius 10p hack keeps you and your home bug-free all summer long – it smells divine and flies and mosquitos hate it
BRITS are not the only ones coming out to enjoy the warmer weather – bugs and pests are making an appearance too.
Instagram influencer and lifestyle hack guru @BrunchWithBabs shared her three tips to keep any flies and bugs away this summer while you enjoy the sun.
“Did your mother ever tell you the ingredient secret to be bug-free all summer all summer long?” she begins in a recent video. “It’s cinnamon!”
She then shows herself sprinkling a healthy amount of cinnamon in her bin.
She explains how ground cinnamon can keep “maggot, flies, and critters” out of your rubbish.
“Don’t forget the lid,” she instructs.
Another tip she tells her 3.7 million followers is using cinnamon sticks to keep fruit flies from disturbing your nibbles.
“All you have to do is place a few [cinnamon sticks] in your fruit bowl and you’ll be fruit fly-free.”
Her last tip again involves cinnamon, but this time in the form of a spray.
She claims this will help with mosquito bites.
“To make your spray, just whisk in two teaspoons of cinnamon into four cups of warm water,” Babs says.
She then tells viewers to leave it to stew, as you would a cup of tea.
“Drain your cinnamon mixer right into your spray bottle,” she says.
You then need to add half a teaspoon of both rubbing alcohol and dish detergent into the recipe.
Afterwards, shake and you’re ready to spray.
“It’ll keep mosquitos away and it’s safe for you too! Just spray away.”
Babs received loads of comments underneath her video.
One wrote: “I love you, thank you! Those fruit flies were making me crazy!”
Another said: “Babs always coming in with the hot tips!!! Excited to try!”
Someone else penned: “Ok I don’t mind smelling like cinnamon then all summer [rolling on the floor laughing emoji.”
However, others weren’t so convinced.
One user said: “Sorry Babs, but I’m not going to spray soapy cinnamon water on my skin. Love you though.”
A second commented: “Why would I want to put dish soap on my skin.”
Another said: “But isn’t the cinnamon water going to stain your clothes?”
Someone else suggested all you need to keep flies away is a collection of 2p coins.
Whilst Fabulous reporter Kate Kulniece tried 5 hacks to banish flies from her kitchen.
Why do flies come out in summer?
Flies are present all year round, but all of a sudden when summer comes, they are just EVERYWHERE!
The main contributing factors are the breeding cycle of flies and the soaring temperatures.
Insects are cold blooded and in summer, when their body temperature rises from the external heat, they become more active.
The hotter weather also let’s them seek out cool moist spots, like inside your home, to escape from the sweltering heat and to lay their eggs.
House Fly eggs take around 20 hours to hatch, but when the temperature rises above 37 degrees, can hatch within 8 hours!
In extreme hot weather the eggs can mature from larvae to adult fly in as little as four days.
The average lifespan of a housefly is 21 days, so each female can lay up to 900 eggs during the summer months!