How do I Keep House Flies off my Plants?

[garudamon11]

Hello everyone

I noticed that in the morning common houseflies stop on my plants for some time and then leave before noon, at first I thought they're just glad to see plants ( ) and they wont harm them, but after a week or so I started to see black spots on the leaves and petals, I had no doubt the flies did it.
So the question is, how do I keep flies away from my plants?

[PunkRotten]

Maybe some kind of homemade garlic or pepper spray. Maybe the odor would repel them. I think flies also don't like basil.

[rainbowgardener]

They don't like mint either. Spraying the plants with a solution of mint extract (a few drops in a pint of water) might take care of it.

But I'd wonder why the flies are attracted to your plants. You didn't say what kind of plants they are, but I don't think in general most plants are especially attractive to flies. So look very closely at your plants. If there are aphids, scale insects (hard to spot, just look like little bumps), or whiteflies on the plants, they secrete a transparent, sweet, sticky substance called honeydew, which is attractive to the flies.

[garudamon11]

My plants are: a gardenia, a kalanchoe and 3 containers of vinca orchids
I didnt notice anything other than flies so far

[!potatoes!]

willing to bet the spots will wash off - probably just some flypoop. I doubt they'll do much, if any, harm. if I cared about the spots, I'd be more keen to wash them off than try to prevent flies from landing.