Dealing with Flies and other bugs with Ventilation 

Few things are worse than going to bed after a hard day at work and hearing a soft bzzz as a mosquito zips around your room. It’s often just loud enough to be annoying, but not quite loud enough that you have to get out of bed.  

There are several simple and effective ways to deal with flies and other bugs over summer, but one of the less well-known solutions is proper home ventilation. Want some help dealing with flies and other bugs this year? Book a free home assessment today! 

But how exactly can ventilation help deal with flies and other bugs around your home? 

Keep bugs out by closing windows, but with none of the downsides. 

Shutting your windows is the obvious answer to keeping bugs outside but doing that can sometimes make your home feel less like a house and more like an oven. Obviously, this isn’t particularly pleasant, which is why you need something to fight the overheating. 

A ventilation system adds fresh air to your home, bringing fresh (and usually cooler) air into your home to fight overheating, while still keeping the physical barrier between you and all those annoying bugs. Note - windows are often not enough to fight overheating, particularly in newer homes. For more information check out our Summer Ventilation page here. 

Turn your home into an insect desert by reducing humidity: 

Bugs, like humans, find certain humidities more comfortable to live in. For some bugs, like cockroaches, dust mites, and various lice, that humidity level is quite high. This is because most bugs lack the ability to efficiently store water, forcing them to rely on moisture in the air to avoid dehydration. 

What humidity levels are comfortable for bugs? 

• Cockroaches: 50-80% RH 
• Dust mites: 50-75% RH (ideally above 25C) 
• Fleas: 70% RH (if you have pets!) 
• Centipedes: 80-90% RH 
• Silverfish: 75-95% RH 

For reference, a comfortable indoor humidity for humans is around 30-50%, although some people might be comfortable outside of this range. 

So how exactly does ventilation help you deal with bugs? If you lower indoor humidity enough (something a ventilation system can help with), you can kill many bugs outright and convince the survivors to go live somewhere more comfortable. This is a win-win, as lower humidities tend to be much more comfortable (and healthier) for us too!  

If you need an explainer on how ventilation reduces humidity, check out our blog post here