How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies (5 Easy Steps)

Fruit flies are tiny flying bugs that’s attracted to rotting and over ripened fruits such as grapes, plums, strawberries, mangoes, and watermelon.

Each female will lay 500 eggs in summer and they’ll develop to adults within 8 – 10 days. 

Fruit flies come thrive in warmer temperatures with rotten fruits and vegetables laying their eggs in wall cracks, home kitchen, or in cafeterias, hotels, and restaurants. So, how to get rid of fruit flies? 

1. Toss Fruits and Wipe Them out

First, you’ll need to too or dispose off the rotting or overripe vegetables and fruits that may be in your house or kitchen. Notably, fruit flies will hatch and then proceed into your foods.

Next, dip the vegetables and fruits that are not yet infested in some soapy water (or apple cider vinegar). Next, wash or use a clean towel to wipe all the produce. Finally, rinse the fruits with clean water and dry them.

This will clean off all the fruit fly eggs that could be lying on the surfaces of the produce. However, put the produce in a sealed contained or the refrigerator.

Wipe out all the possible breeding grounds for fruit flies. These areas include the cabinet surfaces or kitchen tops. In addition, you, must wipe out the bottom and inner sides of the trash cans to remove food residue and spills.

Remember to use trash bags but also dispose them off daily. However, any bag that’s not full will need to be covered – at least if you won’t be tossing it off.

Finally, clean up the moist drain as it may have fermenting waste – your may use one of the best drain cleaners. It’ll easily unclog the drains with organic and fermented mater – including those of fruits and vegetables. 

2. Apple Cider Vinegar + Dawn Dish Soap 

Apple cider vinegar is the magical best fruit fly trap. But why do fruit flies love vinegar? Well, vinegar is fully fermented organic matter (with excellent scent). Fruit flies love broken-down natural ingredients and its acidity. 

The bugs will jump into a jar containing Apple cider vinegar and drown in it as they try to drink it with its mouth-parts – acting like a Kryptonite. The requirements to make the vinegar fruit fly traps are just a plastic wrap and a jar or glass. 

1. Pour a portion of your Apple cider vinegar into a glass. Cover the glass with vinegar using a plastic wrap. 
2. Now, use a pin or toothpick to poke some 2-4 small holes on the plastic wrap. This will allow the smell of your white vinegar to emerge.
3. Next, you’ll need to poke a bigger hole at the center of your plastic cover – this is where the fruit flies will gain entry into the glass. 
4. Now, leave the glass with Apple cider vinegar around the area having a fruit fly infestation. To ensure that the fleas won’t escape the glass having white vinegar – add 3-10 drops of dawn dish soap for fleas that’ll act like glue on the insects. 
5. The fruit flies will be stuck in the vinegar jar as they can’t move out – they’ll finally die. 
6. Repeat the Apple cider vinegar treatment daily until the fruit fly infestation ceases. 

Alternatively 

1. Pour boiling water or boiling Apple cider vinegar in the infested drains. This will quickly repel the fruit flies from your yard and home. 
2. The boiling liquids will flush out the fruit flies from the hidden and moist places such as toilets, garbage disposals, sink drains, and shower drains.  

Why Vinegar + Soap Works: 

Fruit flies will be attached to the Apple cider vinegar due to its great scent. Therefore, the flies will try to land of the vinegar. But the soap will have broken the vinegar’s surface tension making the fruit flies to sink and drown. 

Luckily, Apple cider vinegar is environmentally-friendly, cheap and won’t generate harsh fumes. But liquid dish soap isn’t’ safe for human consumption and thus must be kept far from kids.

3. Beer or Old Wine Trap

New scientific research show fruit flies have a unique relationship with yeast that’s is beer or old wine. Yeast secretes some sweet scent that’ll attract the fruit flies. 

1. Simply pour half a glass of fresh or old beer into some mason jar that’s covered with a lid. Place the bottle of glass with the beer at the area where you saw the fruit flies. 
2. Hammer some holes on the lid of the metal lid covering the bottle, glass or jar. The fruit flies will enter the container, feast on the bear and ultimately drown. 
3. You’ll need to drop a little bear on top of the glass cover – this will lure the fruit flies into your stale beverage. The bugs will be trapped by the bottle’s narrow neck – it acts as a natural barrier as they can’t jump out. 

Why Beer (Alcohol) works: 

Similar to the case with vinegar, the smell of beer or wine attracts fruit flies. However, you can also some some drops of the dish soap that’ll consequently act like glue.  

4. Liquid Soap + Water + Light

Our next fruit fly trap will be using water plus liquid soap. For this trap, you’ll simply mix the liquid soap and the water in a bowl. 

1. Mix soap + water in the bowl until is creates a foamy and bubbly bath. 
2. Next, position the bowl with the foamy water under some bright light such as stove lights or other lamps. 
3. The light from your source will create a reflection that’ll attract the fruit flies. However, the dish soap will make the flies to drown as it’ll have broken the surface tension of the water.

Alternatively: 

Use an old fruit, vinegar plus a paper cone. Thus, simply position a large piece of overly rip fruit and some little vinegar in glass or a jar.

Next, roll down some paper cone into your jar – ensure that it sticks. Place the narrow end of the paper cone at the bottom of the jar.

Thus, the odor of the smelling fruit in the mixture will attack the fruit flies. However, the fruit flies won’t easily climb up the paper cone and thus they’ll be trapped in the jar.

Conclusion

How to prevent a fruit fly infestation. The surest way of preventing a fruit fly infestation is by avoiding to attract them at all. Therefore, the main considerations would be maintaining a clean dining area and kitchen.

Wash Fruits and Vegetables. As noted earlier, fruit flies will also pitch camp on dirty, overripe or rotting produce – fruits and vegetables. Thus, to prevent an infestation, you’ll need to thoroughly wash and dry the produce.

Wash your eggplants, broccoli, apples, or melons etc once you get them from your store. The washing process will remove the eggs and adults of these fruit flies.