Fruit flies are a common pest in gardens, and they can be effectively controlled by removing overripe and rotten fruits and vegetables. To prevent fruit flies from entering your home, it is essential to clean your home inside and out, as they are attracted to various resources, not just fruits and vegetables. Commercial fly control products, such as sprays and traps, can be used to control fruit flies, but DIY methods like apple cider vinegar, dish soap, and alcohol spray can also be used.
Browning and feeding sources for fruit flies include fruit, juice, soda, or other sweet items. One effective method is to practice excellent sanitation, eliminate rotting fruits and vegetables, and keep as much food in the refrigerator as possible. Additionally, keep counters clean and away from ripening fruit.
To eliminate breeding and feeding sources, it is crucial to remove residual sugars from recyclables and clean sinks and garbage disposals with a mixture of vinegar and either ice or baking soda. Setting traps for fruit flies can help break the surface tension of the fermenting liquid, attracting the flies and causing them to fall in and drown.
Neem cake can also be used to kill gnat larvae in soil by mixing one part hydrogen peroxide to four parts water and drenching the soil. Apple cider vinegar can also be used to attract flies, as it will attract them to the scent of vinegar.
Clean up spills quickly, as liquids, including water, that seep under cupboards or fridges are prime real estate for fruit fly populations. Keep compost aerated or turned and, if possible, contained with a lid or tarp to reduce the number of flies.
In addition to using commercial fly control products, you can also use homemade remedies like vinegar traps, yellow paper with Vaseline, bug spray, exclusion bags, and exclusion netting on trees. Finally, set up a fruit fly trap, which consists of an attractant like cider vinegar inside a bottle or container from which the flies cannot escape.
📹 Simple DIY trick to getting rid of fruit flies in your house
The season of abundance with delicious fruits and vegetables is upon us, and so are the fruit flies.
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HEAR ME OUT: I did some extensive testing dealing with my terrible fruit fly infestation and gathered quite a number of insights: 1. Do not use the inverted top of the bottle, it’s not necessary. I did a direct comparison and the bottom of a bottle filled with the solution actually worked better than the full construction that I tested alongside! The inverted bottle top method is great for catching wasps though! 2. You don’t need a huge trap, you rather want to place a number of traps around your apartment. 3. The amount of solution you use doesn’t matter that much. If you use a large cup you just need more of the solution. It’s the surface of the solution that’s important, not the depth. So make sure to use a small vessel that you can fill up almost to the rim because if there’s a big rim, the fruit flies will just sit there and probably even feast on the vinegar solution that spilled on the rim when building/filling/moving the trap. You can actually use a number of espresso cups. You won’t need much solution and you can put them in a number of places. 4. If after a day or two you think you catched almost all of them, don’t remove the traps! The fruit fly population will grow again if you don’t leave the traps for another few days! Maybe even leave one trap somewhere discreet indefinitely and change the solution from time to time.
Thank you so much Rebecca! I had what it seemed like an infestation in my kitchen. I placed 3 of the bottles around my kitchen. As soon as I placed them I saw the flies starting to get attracted to it. After 2 hours I check the bottom of the bottles and half of them were already there! I left it during the night and I just woke up and we are flies free. Thank you ❤
I live in Florida and have a small garden. So yes, fruit flys, gnats or as my New York baby calls them, punkies are a nuisance. I use a similar method but use any types of dish detergent (I prefer apple scent or add a squirt of lemon or lime juice) as well as regular vinegar. I also don’t actually push the top of the bottle down into the mixture, but just a smidge above the liquid. That allows them a passage in and they cant come back out. Also, that’s the only one I’ll leave out. My trash can is under the sink so I bought 10 little containers at dollar tree for $1.25 and use the same solution under there and the rest scattered about including in the garage seeing how that door is used multiple times a day! Bless, everyone! 😇
Take a small bowl, put some apple cider vinegar into it, enough to cover the bottom and be about 1″ deep or so. Add some pieces of fruit – banana or whatever. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Poke holes in the plastic wrap – not too small (I first started with individual pricks – didn’t work, holes need to be a bit bigger). A couple of bowls like that completely eliminated the fruit flies in my house. I did try commercial traps first, but the bowls were what solved the problem.
I didn’t dilute the ACV, but it still works. It’s not instantaneous, and yes, the flies will sit on the outside of the bottle, but eventually they do seem to find their way into the bottle’s solution as shown in the article. This was my experience. Thanks for the tip as it is an eco-friendly solution. Before this, I would just put some white distilled vinegar in a spray bottle and try my best to hit these tiny flies in the air. With that method, it takes time and energy to take the little ones out, but it will usually take less time to take the big ones out.
Something else that really works in addition is to cover your drains. During fruit fly season here in Michigan farm country we do the apple cider vinegar traps as well. But they like to lay their eggs inside your drains where it’s dark and moist. We have found if we engage the drain stoppers on all of our bathroom sinks, cover our shower drains, and cover our kitchen sink drains that cuts our fruit flies by 90% right there. Add the traps and we have hardly any anymore.
Crazy how well it worked. As some others said leave space between the bottle top and the amount of apple cide you put in. Also I happend to add allot of soap so you’d have to wait for bubbles to go down before and flys start going in so use the amount of soap recomended. All in all it cleared my room of fruit flies
I just do apple cider vinegar and soap. I’m not sure what you get out of the water. I would think it dilutes everything and is less attractant to the fruit flies. I DO like the bottle idea. We usually just use a bowl and put plastic wrap on top, then poke holes in it with a fork. I like this idea better because it doesn’t use up a bowl.
I use a glass jar, add white vinegar and cover the top with clingfilm. Poke a couple small holes in the clingfilm. Has the same effect, lots of drowned fruit flies floating at the bottom. For some reason, they won’t go in if there’s even 1 drop of dish liquid (maybe they make em stronger in the UK? lol)
I completely eliminated them when I just stopped leaving anything for them to feast on. All produce coming into the house that didn’t go into the fridge went straight into fine mesh bags. Every scrap of produce that wasn’t eaten immediately went into the fridge or out to the compost. Nothing went into the trash or the sink disposal that was food for fruit flies. Seeds, peels, stems, any bits of any kind, all went immediately outside without delay. Any dishes or utensils with fruit juices or scraps on them were immediately rinsed off. I don’t ever allow dishes to sit in my sink anyway, and that is also probably a big factor in getting rid of these insects. If I didn’t have a compost, I would have had a bag in my freezer for these bits that would get tossed on garbage day. Never had any fruit flies whatsoever after I started doing this. It’s actually a lot easier to do than it might sound, as the mesh bags are what I use in place of the plastic ones the produce section at the supermarket provides. So the produce is already in them. The compost is right off my back deck from the kitchen, so I just step out and toss. If my compost was further away, I’d have had a bucket near the kitchen door to be emptied later, but definitely daily. Not wanting fruit flies provides the motivation to get the habit in place.
If you do that and it do not help so much, it may not be fruit-flies but a similar looking insect with a similar life cycle living in and around indoor plants, they lay their eggs in the soil and can be very hard to get rid of, but you can buy maggots that you but in the plant soil that eat those eggs and stop the cycle.
I like my fruit cold so I keep it in the refrigerator, which seems to keep fruit flies from appearing in the first place. My mother likes to keep fruit on the counter and we usually had fruit flies during the summer and fall. I never have had them at my house because the fruit is in the refrigerator instead of the counter.
It’s best to use a shot glass, fill the shot glass up to the brim and the Dawn traps the fruit flies which prevents them from sitting on the edge of the container and flying away. I did my plastic bottle like she did and so many fruit flies are flying over the plastic bottle and sitting on the brim. I have so many more that probably hatched since trying this method. If I would’ve filled it to the brim, I would’ve killed the fruit flies a week ago.
If you’re really lazy, you can use wine (I think red works good), any vinegar works too. Also, you can just put plastic cover on top with a rubber band and use fork to poke hole. If you’re even lazier, you can just pour vinegar on a cup and leave it out. They still somehow manage to drown in it, nevertheless at a slower pace.
The water level needs to be lower than where the inverted top touches. Also, from a person that had to very large macaws (fruit flies are a given!) use pantry moth traps inside of the inverted top. Just kind of shape them into a cone and pop it into the inverted bottle top. It catches the fruit flies that just linger near the trap. It’s the absolute BEST fruit fly trap ever when you combine it with the pantry fly tape trap!
It doesn’t have to be Dawn, just any dishwashing liquid will do. The soap is a surfactant (chemical that lowers surface tension). If you do not add the soap, the fruit fly may just sit on the surface of the liquid and fly away. If you add the soap, they will not be able to float on the surface, they will sink and drown. Just use a shot glass, don’t need to use a funnel, they just fall in the liquid.
Definitely, not “unfortunate that they drown.” There is an aggressive gnat that’s just like a kamikaze pilot which is very “fruitful” and multiplying. I have used this solution, but without the top of the bottle turned over like a funnel. It definitely works. But, I added one of the UV sticky light traps, which picked up those little devils that didn’t go to the solution. They are without a doubt, the most annoying pest I’ve ever experienced. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep them away forever. 😊
I left a damn banana peel in a Walmart bag I was using for trash overnight in the kitchen. Went to grab the bag the next day, saw what I first thought were knats, not many. Soon as I moved the bag, about 50 of them came flying out. I tied it up real quick, as I could see a bunch still in the bag. Then they were just everywhere after that. Found this article, put a couple in my kitchen. Within 30 seconds I had 5 or 6 already coming to the bottles. After 3 days of using them, changing them out each day, they are now completely gone. I even caught one normal fly, as well lol Truly did not think it would work, let alone work this well. If they are actually fruit flies you have, this 100% works. If it’s not working for you, it’s probably not a fruit fly you’re dealing with.
These fruit flies are beyond a nuisance.The zevo trap works, and I really haven’t seen as many before purchasing one. Also, lavender and peppermint oils keep them at bay as well. Anytime a fruit fly flies in my food or drink, I lose my appetite and, being the goofy person that I am, I would say… Now there’s “fruit fly juice” in my food or drink😂
I remember listening to WCCO radio in the early Eighties in Toronto at night while DX’ing on my desktop radio. Alas, in August 1985, CHAM radio in Hamilton changed its frequency to 820 kHz and increased its power to 50,000 watts daytime and 10,000 watts at night…and that was the end of WCCO on most nights for me.
I have traps with apple cider vinegar and dish soap and the fruit fly doesn’t get near it the fruit fly has been living longer than fifty days four months I tried spraying it with my bleach cleaner and it didn’t work and it has been growing I’m worried because I have a baby guinea pig scratching his ear there is no way it could be laying eggs because there is no other fruit flys just one so I don’t why the fruit fly would be bothering him
Here’s a fun trick- Get one of those little tennis racket bug zappers and lay it flat over a bowl of about the same size. Start yeast in the bowl with water & sugar. A little banana is excellent too, but not necessary. They go CRAZY for that blooming yeast CO2 smell! Now sit back and listen to them 💥pop💥all day. 😎
I’m the only one in my neighborhood who hasn’t has an infestation of these beggars in years. Prevention is key for me. If they have nowhere to breed you have no infestation. All my drains are always covered when not in use. My under cabinet sink vents have knee high stockings on them. My litter boxes have straight sides with nowhere for the flies to hide. No food is left out. I have no houseplants because I’ve yet to find a working solution for keeping the flies from breeding in the soil. I haven’t needed a trap since I did these things. Knock on wood. 😎
This is a counter productive idea 😂 the flys are there because you have open container of apple cider 😅which is gross to see them every day and deal with that grossness. If you don’t want to see them, don’t leave around cut and open sugary stuff to begin with, even to trap them 😅 this is just sounds ridiculous 🤣 This is similar to leaving money around to catch thieves.
too complicated, just use a small bowl, put vinegar inside, wrap it with a plastic bag whatever plastic wrap will work, use a fork to pierce holes in it not too many because you want them to be able to enter not too many to escape, about two times should be ok . Wait about a day.. enjoy. oh and the vinegar need to reach very close to the wrap so they drown when they are stuck underneath.
So no one is going to comment on that nasty plate of fruit she was holding?? 🤢I certainly wouldn’t keep THAT fruit on the counter. That would be trash fodder. One of the oranges was molding, another couples pieces of citrus were used and fit for the trash can… 🤢 And another orange and the lime were both showing signs of going bad or being dried out and past their prime. That was one nasty plate of fruit.
You don’t have to kill them. You can put a slice of lemon inside a tall glass (the taller the better) and lean a piece of card (to block them from seeing you when you catch them) on one side of the glass. When they are in the glass, slowly surreptitiously cover the glass with them inside while standing behind the card / from their blind spot and then release them outside your home. it helps to have a narrow top of the glass and to partially cover so there’s less time used to cover the glass and for them to notice you. Try not to have them notice you otherwise of course they will learn the dangers. Try to take as many of your fruit flies in each evacuation for the same reason of less of them seeing the trap strategy. Clean your bin! Easy win. Do this at the beginning of the season so it doesn’t become a problem.
Humans dont be fools: Dont use this methode anymore! You should not Kill!!!! There is a better wy, get a cup or something and put in a fruit like a apple or cherry or some other fruit, make sure fruit is juicy, and put it in, then above aluminium foil, close it and make some holes, you can also use another foil than aluminium, then put it to the kitchen, dont add any soap or so, you dont need soap, and then use paper or something for the next day, be fast and put it on top of the cup when there is no fruif fly above and bring them outside and let them go fly away!!!*