Before you can even think of how to get rid of fruit flies in the house, they would have multiplied, resulting in fruit fly infestation. Fruit flies are tiny little insects that are of a size that is hardly noticeable most of the time.
These tiny reddish brown insects are 3-4 mm in size and thus make it very easy to kill fruit flies. However, before you can even notice a few fruit flies, there would already be a colony of them in your kitchen.
Let’s find out more about fruit flies.
2. What Are Fruit Flies?
Whenever you keep fruits outside in the kitchen you may notice some uninvited guests flying on overripe fruits, vegetables, or even open bottles. These tiny insects are fruit flies. Although only one fruit fly may have entered your house, it can lay eggs and multiply quickly in more fruit flies and make it tough to get rid of fruit flies.
2.1. How can they enter your house and multiply?
They can enter your house either from the window or from some grocery store where you were buying fruits and vegetables. Overripe fruit, rotten fruit, rotten food, and garbage disposals are ideal breeding grounds for adult fruit flies. Adult flies lay eggs that turn into larvae within a few days, thus multiplying the number enormously as one female fruit fly can lay a hundred eggs at a time.
2.2. What are Fruit Fly infestations?
These unwanted guests when start growing their population largely and are all over the house, this kind of situations are known as fruit fly infestation. These fruit flies love overripe fruit the most and can be mostly found buzzing on them. This happens mostly in summer and fall but can happen throughout the year and it is difficult to get rid of fruit flies.
2.3. Common Source
The main source where these flies can be found in kitchen sink drains, trash cans, food storage areas, garbage disposal, ripened fruits, and rotten food. These sources attract all types of insects like flies, fungus gnats, fruit flies, worms, etc.
2.4. Their Life Span
Depending on the environmental conditions, these flies can live up to a few weeks. So even though you get rid of fruit flies, the problem will not be over as they would have been multiplied in number by the time you even notice them.
3. How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies?
A fruit fly may not bite or do any big harm to you directly but can bring in bacteria and viruses with it. As it may sit on left-out food or any ripened fruit that may be in an open area, it can in turn cause health problems like flu or indigestion.
You may feel tempted to throw ripened fruits and food that attract fruit flies but that will not solve the fruit fly problem. Keeping food in a closed container may not help much to get rid of fruit flies, that can still invade it.
So what can you do? Well, here are some DIY fruit fly traps that may prevent fruit fly infestation.
3.1. Bottle and Plastic Wrap Method
For this simple DIY fruit fly trap you need a red wine bottle with some wine in it or any empty bottle and add some leftover wine or beer in it. You can follow these simple steps to make a successful DIY trap of how to get rid of fruit flies:
- Keep the bottle with little wine or beer in it and remove the lid of the bottle.
- Place a plastic wrap on the opening of the bottle and secure it in place with the help of a rubber band so that it won’t be loose.
- Make small holes in the plastic wrap such that these tiny insects can enter the bottle easily.
- Leave the bottle in the place where you want to keep your fruits overnight.
The smell of wine or beer will attract flies but the slim neck of the bottle covered with plastic on its mouth will trap fruit flies inside. After some time when you see flies are not moving or floating in the liquid, you can simply remove the wrap and drain flies in the kitchen sink or garbage disposals nd get rid of fruit flies.
3.2. Dish Soap and Apple Cider Vinegar Trap
This method is the most effective one in order to get rid of fruit flies. When flies are hard to get rid of with any other method, this method comes in handy. All you need is a small bowl, dish soap, and a little vinegar.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
- Fill the bowl with apple cider vinegar.
- Add a few drops of dish soap to it and mix it well.
- Leave it uncovered wherever you want to keep it.
The soap in the mixture is known to reduce the surface tension in the liquid after some time. Vinegar will attract flies towards it and the reduced surface will not let flies escape the liquid solution and sink down in the liquid. Afterwards you can throw the liquid and get rid of fruit flies.
3.3. Sugar And White Vinegar Trap
White vinegar can be used as a replacement for apple cider vinegar. You will need a mason jar for this DIY trap and plastic to wrap the opening of the jar. After that you need to do the following steps:
- Pour little vinegar into the jar and add sugar to it.
- Stir the solution so that the sugar can dissolve well.
- Cover the mouth of the jar with plastic wrap and make a few small holes in it.
- Keep the jar in a place where it can attract flies and leave it.
This method will help in catching fruit flies as they can enter easily but plastic cover will prevent fruit flies from coming out. You can drain the solution once these tiny little insects start to float in the liquid solution and get rid of these flies.
Adding a few drops of dish soap into this sugary solution can extend the shelf life of this solution for more than a week.
3.4. Mason Jar And Funnel Trap
The simplest of all DIY traps is this jar and funnel trap. These non toxic traps can catch a large number of fruit flies without much effort. All you need is a glass jar and a piece of paper and follow the steps.
- Add rotten fruit or fruit juice to the jar which can attract fruit flies. You can even add apple cider vinegar to the jar.
- Fold the piece of paper in a cone shape and put it in the mouth of the jar and leave it.
This DIY fruit fly traps fruit flies inside the jar as the conical shape paper will prevent them from getting out. You can empty the jar once you are satisfied with the catch. You can even use a disposable container instead of a jar and get rid of fruit flies.
3.5. Sticky Paper
Keeping a sticky paper in the desired place can be an easy and zero-effort method for fruit fly traps. You can simply keep the sticky side of the paper and wait for fruit flies to come and sit on it. They will get stuck over the paper and you can throw the paper. This is the lazy kind of hack to get rid of fruit flies in the house.
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3.6. Other Available Options
If you do not feel like making a DIY fruit fly trap, then you can go for some market-bought traps that help in methods of how to get rid of fruit flies in the house. The market is loaded with different kinds of traps and remedies against fruit flies. But it is suggested to use non-toxic methods to get rid of fruit flies as they will not cause any long term harm on the body. Also make sure to clean your house every once in a while so that your house is free rom any insects.
4. Preventing Fruit Fly Infestation
It can be very hard to prevent fruit flies from entering but they can be stopped from multiplying by using a few traps. Keeping food storage areas clean and tidy daily can reduce insects like flies, and fungus gnats from laying eggs. Throwing trash cans into a dustbin after use can help in preventing fungus, bacteria, or any insect invasion.
Using isopropyl alcohol, which works as an antiseptic when mixed with hot water for deep cleaning can also prevent insects that carry bacteria and viruses from growing. You should practice cleaning with antiseptic and repeat daily for better results.
When buying groceries from a grocery store, make sure to wash them properly in order to get rid of eggs and larvae of any insect. You can even clean it with boiling water.
Every once in a while you should get apartment therapy for cleaning and maintaining the hygiene of the house and know how to get rid of fruit flies. Staying aware of the cleaning and hygiene process is another way of preventing your house from any kind of infections and insect invasion. A healthy house keeping way will not ensure the hygiene of the house but also the health of people who are living in it.
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Last Updated on by ritukhare