A Complete Guide: How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Summer means tall glasses of lemonade, fresh fruits and vegetables, and fruit flies. Buzzing everywhere, from your favourite food items to the grossest trash cans, fruit flies are the last thing you want to deal with this summer. Even though fruit flies don’t bite or poison, they are disgusting and can make your all-clean home appear dirty. This article will teach you everything there is to know about fruit flies and how to get rid of fruit flies from your home once and for all. Keep reading to remove these pesky creatures from your property.

What Are Fruit Flies | Where Do They Come From?

Have you seen tiny reddish-brown creatures flying around the kitchen? Measuring about 1/5 to 1/10 inches, fruit flies are one of the most common yet annoying household pests. Although it might seem like fruit flies can pop out of nowhere, they are actually attracted to the rotting, ripe, and decaying vegetables, fruits, and produce in your kitchen. Fruit flies also love to thrive on fermented substances like wine, liquor, and beer. Female fruit flies can lay over 500 eggs at a time, so getting rid of them as soon as you see one buzzing around the house is important.

While fruit flies can easily enter your property through open windows and doors, they are usually bought from store-bought vegetables and fruits. Fruit flies are also an indicator of a dirty house. Thus, search your house for rotten food, throw it away, and clean the area as soon as possible.

Note: Fruit flies can live up to 50 days and usually attack in the summer and early fall months.

4 Ways to Get Rid of Fruit Flies for Good

Fruit flies are pestering little buggers that won’t go away easily. To make your life easier, we have compiled a list of the four most efficient techniques on how to get rid of fruit flies.

1.      Create a Dish Trap

Also known as the soap and bowl trap, the dish trap is the easiest way to kill fruit flies. Here is what you need to do:

• Step 01: Take a bowl and fill it with apple cider vinegar.
• Step 02: Now squirt a few drops of dish soap into the bowl and mix it well.
• Step 03: Place the bowl in the microwave and heat it for a few minutes to make the mixture more aromatic.
• Step 04: Lastly, leave the bowl as bait in the area most infested by fruit flies and wait. Because the soap reduces surface tension, all the fruit flies that try to feed on the apple cider vinegar mixture will drown.

2.      Stage a Jar Trap

Another popular method is to trap fruit flies in a bottle or jar. Before we begin, note that this method can be used with wine, beer, apple cider vinegar, or fruit juice. In order to make the process easy to understand, we will use apple cider vinegar in this guide: 

• Step 01: Take three to four jars or bottles and pour apple cider vinegar into them.
• Step 02: Cover these jars with plastic wrap or paper. Use a rubber band to ensure a firm fit.
• Step 03: Use a toothpick or anything pointed to create small holes in the plastic wrap.
• Step 04: Place these jars around your house and wait for the fruit flies to fall for the trap.

3.      Try the Old Fruit Trap

If you don’t have any apple cider vinegar, the fruit trap has you covered. Follow these steps to trap fruit flies using rotten fruit:

• Step 01: Chop the rotten fruit into small pieces and place them in a bowl.
• Step 02: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. You can also use a rubber band to ensure a tight grip.
• Step 03: Use a toothpick to poke holes large enough for the fruit flies to find a way in but small enough to prevent them from escaping.

4.      Use Store-Bought Products

For those who don’t like DIY techniques, insect repellents and sprays can also be used to hunt fruit flies and remove them from your home. Some of these products include:

• Bye Bye Fruit Fly Solution – These are odourless fruit fly repellent strips lasting up to 120 days.
• Fruit Fly BarPro Strip – Pour this into a small bowl, place it near the fruits and vegetables, and you will be free of fruit flies before you know it.
• Aunt Fannie’s FlyPunch Fruit Fly Trap – Place it on the kitchen counter. Remove the lid and wait for the fruit flies to get trapped.

If none of the above-mentioned tips is working, hire an exterminator. The professional will use special chemicals to effectively and efficiently remove all fruit flies from your property.

Tips to Prevent Fruit Flies from Coming Back

Now that you know how to get rid of fruit flies, follow the below-mentioned preventative tips to ensure that the fruit-loving insect doesn’t come back:

• Eliminate any potential breeding ground.
• Store vegetables and fruits in the fridge.
• Make sure to throw all overripe fruits and vegetables in the dustbin.
• Take out the garbage every day.
• Ensure that your kitchen doors and windows are sealed.
• Don’t forget to clean the drain.
• If you see any fruit fly eggs or larvae, remove them immediately.
• Clean all spillages as soon as possible, especially alcohol and fruit juice spills.

Wrapping It Up!

If left unadressed, fruit flies can pose severe health risks to you and your family. While they might not deliberately bite you, poison you, or eat or damage the furniture, fruit flies deposit bacteria into the fruits and vegetables in your kitchen. Use our guide to eliminate fruit flies from your property. Also, make sure to follow the prevention tips to minimize the threat of fruit flies infestation.

Related Blog Posts

Blogs

How To Guides for Home Owners

How to Get Rid of Ants the Safe Way

How to Keep Spiders Away

A Complete Guide on How to Get Rid of Rats and Prevent their Return