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How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies
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Of all tiny insects, fruit flies have to be one of the most annoying. When they come, they come en masse and before you know it your entire kitchen is buzzing with these tiny, clumsy little bugs. Thankfully, the process for getting rid of them is pretty straightforward and easy, it’s just a matter of being thorough.
Mexican fruit fly
1. Are you sure they’re fruit flies?
Catch one of the bugs and examine it closely. If this proves to be a challenge, hang some fly paper for an hour or so to capture a few of the little buggers. Common household fruit flies (aka Drosophila) grow to a maximum size of 1/8th inch (3mm) long and typically have brownish or yellowish bodies and red eyes. They are also known to be clumsy fliers - a common experience in infested areas is to feel these little bugs kamikaze into your bare skin and face out of nowhere.
2. Eliminate the sources of the fruit fly infestation
Ok, so you’re sure you’ve got fruit flies, now what? Now it’s time to cut off their supplies - food, shelter and breeding ability.
Destroy food sources and breeding grounds
One good thing about these insects is that their food and their breeding grounds are one in the same. They ‘inject’ their eggs into their food, and they tend to gather in the areas of your home where they’re finding food - so it’s pretty easy to cut off their supply lines. You must however, go through your entire house in these steps, even if they do not occur in every room. Once you remove one source of food, they will search for more - and if they find it somewhere else then you will be starting over again from square one. Fruit flies eat and breed in moist, organic materials. This means fruits and vegetables (especially when over ripe or rotting), dirty sponges and wash-cloths, juices, spills and messes. If your infestation is typical, they are centering around your kitchen, so that’s where we’ll start.
Kitchens:
- Remove standing liquids and any soft materials or fabrics that are wet.
- Flush your drains and garbage disposals with ammonia or drain cleaners. Do this once every few hours for a while or partially plug the drain and fill the sink so the cleaners trickle down slowly and stay present in the pipes.
- Empty your trash before it overflows and invest in trash containers with tight-fitting lids, make sure they close securely.
- Check your dishwasher for grime collecting in the bottom and the filter. Refrain from storing dirty dishes in there until you’ve eliminated the incursion.
- Scour your cabinets and pantries for exposed and forgotten foods - sacks of potatoes are common culprits, so are bags of grains and legumes that have become moist (These will breed moths as well). Store fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge until the fruit flies are eradicated.
- Check under your refrigerator and other movable appliances and furniture for hidden spills and messes.
- If you have an electric stove, lift up the burners as well as the entire top surface and check for spills inside.
- Dry the surfaces in the sink when you are not using it.
- Relocate any potted plants or herbs outside (if the weather allows) and / or apply an insecticide that is safe to use on houseplants and edibles.
- Clean underneath your sink, look for leaks and soft, moist or rotting wood
- Dispose of or clean old towels and sponges.
- Use your nose! Sniff around for anything rotten or out of place.
- Check the cracks between your kitchen appliances and the cabinets for anything that may have fallen between them.
Living areas:
- Check behind furniture for spills and messes.
- Walk around barefoot and thoroughly inspect the entire carpet for spills and moisture.
- Clean up any leftover food, plates, or drink ware.
Bathrooms:
- Flush your sink and bathtub drains with ammonia or drain cleaner (just in case).
- Inspect the cabinets underneath the sink for leaks.
Other fruit fly attractants
Fruit flies are attracted to light as well as foods - so a portable bug light can really help cut down on the population while you are working to eliminate their breeding grounds.
Eliminate all methods of entry
In some areas it’s not uncommon for fruit flies to come in from the outside - especially if you have lots of bushes and vegetation nearby, or if you have trash cans or dumpster’s near your entrances. If you can, remove or relocate these things farther away from your home. Ensure screens are on all of your windows, that they are undamaged, and then concentrate on sealing up any cracks or crannies around windows and doors to make sure bugs stay out. If you believe they are coming in from the outside, a small bug light may come in handy for keeping any that do make it in from fathering a new fruit fly civilization inside of your home.
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i hate these little shits they seem to migrate to my mirrors so annoying i tried the wine the juice the insecticides foggers in the house and than i found the culprit a bannana in my 3 year olds room so they do come from fruit! there another product i found underhow to rid of knats that im gonna try ill let yas know how it works!!!
I have a quick fix. I find that they have to die off outside because i can see them everywhere out there. But untill then I use windex. I spray those little buggers right out of the air. Then they fall to a surface where I then wipe them up and throw them out! Its a battle until it gets cold but it helps. I try to keep the ripe fruit in the frig and keep the numbers of them down with the windex. Good Luck
I am going nuts with these stupid annoying fruit flies and i dont know what they are feeding off of in my home.. I have never ever had them before and just this last month they have somehow found there way into my appartment i have looked through everything and cannot find what they are surviving on.. at one point i thought that they were gone cos i didnt see any for like 3 days and then its like they came back with a vengence… Im going crazy can anyone HELP me im in DESPERATE need im havding family over in like 3 weeks and i dont want them to be disgusted with them…
HELP PLEASE
Alanna- I couldn’t sympathize with you more. I just had a baby 8 weeks ago and had these things all over my house. I get them every year, but was super freaked out about bringing a baby into the house with them. Please know that no matter what anyone says, they are harmless to you and your baby. They are just SUPER annoying. If you are bottle feeding, just try and keep the bottles sealed in zip lock baggies. It will ease your mind.
If you can, check your drains for scum build-up. I know that is where all of mine come from. You can cut their numbers down dramatically by cleaning out your drains throroughly, including the p-traps (the u-like pipe under the sink). For a quick fix, get some fly strips and drain plugs from a home improvement store. It will cut them down until you can pay better attention to the problem. In-Vade bio gel is a product you can get online (not in stores) that will also help. But be sure to follow the instructions implicitly. This stuff is great because it’s non-toxic and doesn’t smell so it won’t harm you or your baby.
Be sure to take your trash out daily and don’t leave any dishes in the sink or allow standing water to sit anywhere.
I know how frustrating this problem can be. Just don’t worry, they are harmless. Good luck and congrats on your new baby!
I have fruit flies all over my house, I’ve tried everything! Tomorrow I’m getting induced to have my baby, and I dont want those bugs here…What do I do????
we have a leak in our kitchen. so when it rains we put a pot inder the leak. when we do that aboutg 35 fruit flies show up in the pot the next day. so maybe youall might try that…
Kristin, if you check this web site, please let me know how I can email you. I live in Jacksonville, as well and am having the same problem. Would love to chat with you about this FRUSTRATING fly problem. I have some tips that may help as well.
Here is my tip, but it is unfortunately more of a don’t. Do NOT waste your money on a product called “Rid -a - BUG”. It did not work, and in fact, I believe it is fruit fly steroid and crack combined, as it made them more aggro and I believe enhanced their breeding capabilities!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!!
I am being driven nuts by these pesky little things. I tried many of the natural home remedies here (which I prefer, after first using the chemical crap mentioned above, which also made both me and my dog vomit, even though we left the house about two minutes after spraying). I wiped dow everything with bleach after that, which just makes me wheeze and burns my eyes.
Safe in the solace of the master bedroom, with my laptop, I came to this site, and decided to brave the kitchen, and my bathroom. I tried the red wine/soap ideas, as well as dumping cider vinegar down the disposal, letting it sit to attract the bastards, and then rinsing the disposal with bleach and washing it out well after that with anti-bacterial disposal cleaner.
This method has killed many of these f’ing PITA’s, but there are still some in the kitchen, despite having every food sourc eith in tightly closed containers or the refrigerators, including the poor dog’s food.
Throwing out three bowls of Iams is not cheap!
An aside on that issue, as they were all over her bowl! Poor dog, she is totally annoyed as well, as I had to put her food in either the microwave or refrigerator (and it is only dry food!). She’s had her food out all day, every day, for the last 9/1/2 years, and we never saw this.
I have battled, and defeated, palmetto bugs as big as mice in the Keys, termites in St. Augustine, a fleas when my idiot ex got a cat from the shelter in Ohio. This is making me despise the horrid burg of Jacksonville even more.
The source must be the yard. But how to get rid of them out there? We have sprayed, have a monthly pest control service spray…I don’t know what to do. We have had a lot of water in some low-lying spots in the yard, due to a tropical storm, and some branches down, which got wet. I found one branch when I was cleaning up the pine/oak debris from the last storm (I am beginning to despise these trees!) that had maggoty looking white crap on it. I am ashamed to say that this made me yack, and my husband threw the thing over the yard into the creek that runs along the back of the property behind the fence. That creek could be part of the source, as well as the fruit trees that drop unripe citrus during high winds and rain, which accumulates and rots. Unfortunately, the area where it rots in not accessible (high banks, and nasty water). There is a grapefruit tree in our yard, but I pck up and throw away the unripe fruit from that, and as it is very tall, I can’t reach all the branches to get the rest down and my husband cannot either.
Even in Islamorada, with the 8 cat 4 hurricanes and the water left standing from them, combined with the sapodillas (which are very sweet, and mushy, and fall everywhere) and the coconuts (even the jellies) which fell during the 94 - 95 seasons, we never had a problem with these bastards. I’d really like to see them all go, as they are driving me nuts. I took great pleasure in nearly burning with one the snouldering end of a cigarette but that my husband left outside.
That’s another thing! They seem to love nicotine, and cgarette butts!! They are allover the patio outside where my husband smokes, and I clean it (sweeping, and yesterday spraying with bleach and water. )
Someone please help! We have eliminated all standing water, no one is allowed to leave uncovered liquids in glasses around, and everythig in the house has been scoured and vacuumed clean!!
I guess I’ll keep leaving this little red wine dish soap traps out. Maybe put out more? But I don’t know what do do about the yard, short of napalm!
Why were they ever invented in this first place. Yea, I know we used them in advanced biology for the red/brown eye genetic thing, but what other use do they have. Don’t even tell me they are part of the food chain, because NOTHING is eating them. We have about a billion geckos in the yard, and the assorted few that get in the house. What do I need to do? Rent the Jacksonville Zoo lizard exhibit for a da to roam my house?
I don’t want any more harsh chemicals, especially in the house, and well, the yard too where the dog could get into them or it bothers my allergies and asthma. Plus, these things are a health risk (well, of course, they land on garbage!). This is so disgusting!
Someone PLEASE HELP! I AM GOING CRAZY with these things!
omg, i am so annoyed! everytime i go into my kitchen and the bathroom there are these dumb bugs flying around. i find myself jumping around trying to clap my hands together to get them!! I am going home tonight and making some of these little traps.. cross your fingers for me!! Thanks for the advice.
Yes i know i have just got all these fruit flies in my house and they are driving me freakin nuts i try and kill them and they just keep coming back over and over again its like there infesting everyones houses i did try this one thing the pop trick so hopefully it works there just so annoying there even in my toilet as well its like everywhere you go there ,there.