The fruit flies have always been an enemy of cleanliness in the kitchen. These are insects that create problems for their proliferation, especially on decaying food. This article will give you a complete guide about how to get rid of fruit flies. To avoid this, one can intervene adequately without necessarily using chemicals. Here is a guide with some useful tips for these annoying insects with natural methods.
Fruit flies: where do they come from?
The first rule is to eliminate everything that favours their proliferation. It may seem obvious, but flies and insects actually settle in an environment favourable to them, which is certainly not clean; that’s why the first rule to combat these unwanted guests is to prevent their onset. How to do it? Here are some simple examples.
- Throw away fruit that has become too ripe immediately, or try to consume it promptly. The most favourable situation for fruit flies is, in fact, a basket of rotten fruit.
- If you have a wet bucket positioned inside the house when the fruit is unloaded inside it, it will be necessary to throw it in the appropriate outdoor bins. If this is not possible, try to seal the bag while waiting to unload it hermetically.
- Never leave dirty dishes inside the sink: for the lazy, this may seem like an impossible task, but midges love food residues that get encrusted on the dishes’ surface, so it is essential not to leave them lying around to prevent birth.
- Remember that not only fruit is at risk, but any food! Check especially potatoes and onions, foods that tend to be bought in large quantities and more likely to spoil.
How to get rid of fruit flies
If, unfortunately, the midges have started to live and lay eggs in your kitchen, you need to try to eliminate them.
- When insects have settled on dirty dishes or spoiled food, it is not yet time to despair. Some home remedies can be very useful in fighting how to get rid of fruit flies.
- The first remedy is basil: this plant seems to be particularly unwelcome to insects that fly over rotting food. Seeing is believing. Place a small basil plant in the insect’s environment to see that their number will drop dramatically in no time.
- Other odours particularly unpleasant to these insects are that of lavender and lemon. To try an alternative to the basil plant, it is possible to create a fragrance to be sprayed into the environment with a few drops of essential oil and a little hot water: a very fragrant solution that in addition to driving away the midges will leave a pleasant aroma in the environment.
- For the most stubborn insects, it is possible to use a real do-it-yourself ‘trap’. Put some wine in a container or glass (you can also use vinegar or fruit smoothies), then line the surface with adhesive tape and pierce it with a fork or knife: it will be a perfect trap to attract fruit flies that once placed on the sticky surface they will have no way to free themselves.
How to get rid of fruit fly eggs
The last move is o eliminate their eggs. To permanently eliminate the problem, you need to make sure that the eggs left by how to get rid of fruit flies are eliminated to avoid the birth of new unwanted guests in the house. In fact, even when all the adults have been eliminated, it must be remembered that they may have laid eggs that could hatch after days, making all the work done to eliminate the parents useless.
Insects prefer-Humid environments to lay their eggs. The sink could be the place most at risk: it will certainly need to be washed and disinfected; to be sure you have averted any threat, disinfect the drain pipes by throwing plenty of baking soda followed by half a bottle of vinegar, the two ingredients will remove the eggs and also all the dirt that accumulates along the drains. Lastly, simple but effective advice: throw away all the sponges and rags on which insects’ proliferation would be possible.
Fruit fly vinegar trap
One of the best ways to catch adult fruit flies quickly is with a vinegar trap. How to get rid of fruit flies are not intelligent and can be easily outwitted. Their main purpose is to find spoiled and fermented foods, and they fly towards their goal without worrying about safety. Apple cider vinegar has exactly the scent of rotting fruit that attracts the attention of fruit flies.
To make a vinegar trap, you need a few things, most of which you probably already have in your home. Namely:
- glass or cup.
- A plastic bag large enough to fit over the glass.
- Elastic.
- Scissors.
- Apple vinegar.
Pour a small amount of apple cider vinegar into the glass. Use scissors to cut a corner of the plastic bag. The hole should be large enough for fruit flies to enter but not wide enough to escape easily. Place the bag over a glass and position the cutout hole over the centre so that the bag forms a funnel without touching the vinegar. Attach the bag to the glass with an elastic band. Alternatively, you can also use a paper cone. To make the vinegar trap even more effective, add a few drops of liquid soap or dish soap to the vinegar so that the fruit flies have less chance of getting out before they drown in the vinegar.
Drosophila paper trap
If the “vinegar method” does not seem humane to you, then there is an alternative method, when using which the flies will remain alive and released into the street.
To make a homemade fruit fly trap, you will need:
- a piece of paper
- a jar or cup with a small hole,
- Scotch,
- fruit as bait.
Roll a tight cone out of paper with a hole at the tip about 2-3 millimetres. In this case, the cone needs to be quite wide; you do not need to roll it up too much. Secure the resulting cone with tape. Cut the wide end of the cone so that it is about 10-15 cm high. Now place a small piece of fruit (like a banana or peach) in the bottom of the jar or cup. Place the paper cone in the jar.
Attach the cone to the jar with two pieces of tape. Before setting the trap, make sure there are no other sources in the room that are attractive to the fruit fly. A fruit dish, for example, can be hidden in the refrigerator for this time. Place the trap on a table, next to a trash can, or where you’ve seen fruit flies.
The fruit flies will follow the fruit scent into the hole at the bottom of the cone, but they will not be able to escape once inside. After a couple of hours, you will most likely find many fruit flies in your trap. Then you can take the trap outside, remove the paper cone, and release the insects. Attention! Don’t let the trap stay longer than one night.
Mint against fruit flies
oath new and dried peppermint repulses organic product flies, yet different creepy crawlies: ants, bugs, mosquitoes, bloodsuckers, and mice don’t care for it. Spot the squashed mint leaves in a shallow bowl, leaving it in the territory with the best clog of natural product flies. You can basically store dried leaves in material sacks in your kitchen. Peppermint has numerous other medical advantages.
A sure remedy for fruit flies
They don’t care for organic product flies and the smell of such mainstream zesty spices as basil. So you can place a lot of it in the water, or far and away superior, relocate the plant from the nursery into a pot and develop everything winter on the windowsill.
Laurel against fruit flies
The unobtrusive smell of cove leaves is undesirable for natural product flies. Earwigs, moths, cockroaches and mice additionally loathe him. Leave the dried straight leaves in an open holder in the kitchen to keep the bugs far removed. The respectable tree can be developed as a houseplant, and afterwards, assurance against organic product flies will be given to you throughout the entire year.
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Use of household appliances against fruit flies
If your home has a fan, use it to control fruit flies. They fly rather slowly and cannot cope with the strong air currents that prevent them from landing on food. Because of this, fruit flies will not be able to lay eggs, which means they will not reproduce. And after a week, the problem will disappear by itself. They cannot resist insects and a vacuum cleaner, which easily sucks them in. They will no longer be able to get out of the dust collector. You can also get rid of fruit flies with a hairdryer. Please turn it on and bring the reverse side to the place of their concentration.
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Small but dangerous parasites
In addition to being annoying, they also have the potential to contaminate food with bacteria and pathogens. To avoid a fruit fly infestation, it is necessary to use airtight containers and inspect the fruits and vegetables brought into the house. It is also imperative to regularly clean drain lines, trash cans, and other places that accumulate food scraps.
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How to recognize a midges infestation
The sign of a fruit fly infestation is the presence of adult flies and pupae. Adults are easy to spot because they flutter around the kitchen and especially near fruit and trash cans. The larvae, when mature, crawl out of the moult and pupate. These are often mistaken for cockroaches or rodent faeces.
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Life cycle and habits
Fruit flies tend to infest homes during the hottest and brightest seasons, feed on sugary foods and substances, and are known for their ability to reproduce quickly. The larvae, born from the eggs laid under the more mature skin, feed on the decaying fruit and then move on to the next development stage. Fruit flies have a life cycle that develops in four stages: egg, larva, pupa, adult. The cycle can be completed in as little as a week if conditions are right, and fruit flies can live up to thirty days.
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Prevent the arrival of fruit flies
These midges are not satisfied with ripe fruit; they are also attracted to decaying meat, garbage and alcoholic beverages.
Some habits can help prevent fruit fly infestation:
- keep particularly ripe fruit and vegetables in the refrigerator,
- regularly clean the kitchen counter and hob,
- emptying the rubbish bins often,
- dispose of decaying food,
- eliminate waste from the places where it accumulates,
- seal the alcohol bottles.
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Eliminate fruit flies
Fighting a fruit fly infestation can be very complicated. You can try pouring anaerobic digesters or bleach down the drain. But these substances are unlikely to remove all the dirt present. Keeping fruit flies away from home does not involve an occasional treatment. But it is an ongoing process and consists of frequent actions. Do you need the help of an expert? Contact a pest control company only if you are also ready to change your habits!
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Why is the number of fruit flies growing before our eyes?
Sometimes one gets the impression that fruit flies have invited all their friends to a feast because a couple of flies in the kitchen very quickly turn almost into clouds of midges. This is mainly because fruit flies have a concise life cycle. So, they move from the egg to the adult stage in just eight days. This means that one too ripe peach or tomato left on your table can cause fruit flies to clump in just a week.
Fruit flies are also known to be resilient and can be difficult to remove from an indoor environment completely. Although an adult female Drosophila will live, at best, about a month, she can lay 500 eggs, and such a female is not alone in the room. The hatched larvae grow for about 4 days. They feed on microorganisms that decompose overripe vegetables or fruits and the sugar found in fruits during this time.
The most unpleasant thing is that insects do not even need fruits or vegetables to continue reproducing. Have you probably noticed that Drosophila flocks fly off the doormat? Of course, they do not sit there by chance because fruit flies can easily reproduce in a layer of mucus inside a sewer or on an old mop or a sour sponge. This is why even if you get rid of all fruits and vegetables, you may still find that your house is teeming with fruit flies.
