This page contains the following solutions.
The best success I've had getting rid of fruit flies is to take a small bit of over ripe fruit, smoosh it in a small bowl, cover it with water, and leave beside your sink over night.
The best way to keep the fruit flies away is to get some mint leaves. Put them in the fruit basket along with the fruits. The fruit flies don't like mint.
This homemade video shows you how to make a simple but effective fruit fly trap.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
We have tried everything to get rid of fruit flies. Any more ideas?
By Laura
Place a small jar with apple cider vinegar and 2-3 drops of dish detergent in it and place where fruit flies appear. Use about 1/4 vinegar. The flies are drawn to the vinegar and the soap keeps them from flying out. Works every time.
The above works fine but cover the jar with plastic wrap and poke a small hole. I just stuck it with my fingernail or a pencil. Bugs go in and are too stupid to get out.
If you still have them after trying everything, it means they are breeding in or very near your house because something is providing them the environment they need to reproduce.
You'll need to watch for where they are swarming from, and figure out what you are inadvertently providing them that encourages breeding. It could be something as simple as a fruit tree growing near an entry avenue into your home-the door opens and they swarm in. There are so many ways those little beggers can get in, and so many ways they can adapt to an environment!
They could be hatching in a plastic bag; they could be colonising in a dark corner of your pantry; they could be breeding from a smear on a jam jar at the bottom of the cabinet...
And of course there is always the chance they aren't fruit flys, but water gnats or something else. Good luck whatever it is, these are hard to get rid of sometimes.
What's the best way of getting rid of fruit flies? We use those sticky strips and we make sure to rinse out bottles and dishes containing sweets. Any suggestions?
By George F.
Put your vinegar/soap solution in a narrow mouth bottle, like a soda bottle. You might want to drop an apple core or some banana peel in there, too. Then place a funnel in the top of the jar. The flies will enter through the funnel and eventually drown in the solution.
How do you get rid of fruit flies?
By Ruth
You will have to eliminate their food source in your home (such as overripe or rotting fruit, unrinsed fruit cans, or even fruit you've left out to ripen). Once you are sure they have nowhere else to feed, you can set small dishes of cider vinegar with just a drop of dish soap in them on the counter. The fruit flies will land on the vinegar to feed, but the soap will have broken the surface tension and they will fall in and drown.
How do you get rid of fruit flies?
By Ruth C
Fruit flies only have a life cycle of a couple of days. The trick in getting rid of them is to make sure you are not hatching out fresh ones all the time. Check garbage, recycle cans (they love to breed in the dregs of pop and juice cans), house plants, overripe fruit, etc.
I have fruit flies in my house, but for some reason they like to attack bread as well as the fruit. Does anyone know why this is?
By Maggie M.
Put a dish of vinegar next to the fruit and bread. They will be attracted to the vinegar.
I keep getting little fruit flies coming in through my windows. I have tried taping the screens. I have taped the cracks around the windows. I find their bodies on the outside of my screens. I don't know what attracts them. How do I get rid of something when I don't know why they're there?
By Karen
This will help in the interim. Fill up a cup or plastic glass with some apple cider vinegar and then drop in a couple drops of dish washing liquid to break the surface adhesion. They will dive in and drown.
It works every time. The other advice is good, too. If you don't have a disposal, or the things you have can't go down there, put the things in a plastic bag and toss.
Here are a sample photo I posted to help.
PBP
There is still snow, and lots of it, on the ground here in Montana, but we are already having problems with what I call little fruit flies. I happened to see a lot of them flying around my sink where a part of an orange had been tossed yesterday.
We have a greenhouse attached to our house with a connecting door for easy access. I am sure that is the main cause of the problem, but we had not ever had these little flies until last summer. It was absolutely horrible. We had guests for dinner one evening and before we knew it, anybody drinking wine had flies in their wine glasses.
Please does anyone have a solution for this? I know to keep fruit covered and to have a covered trash can, but what else? Thanks so much.
Have you tryed putting a small piece of fruit in a plastic bag and catching all the flies you can. Then taking them out side and releasing them or throwing out the bag. You may have to do this again until all flies are gone.
Maryan
I am having a fruit fly infestation. I don't have fruits or veggies on the countertops. I have no clue where they came from. Can they come inside on pets or humans?
By D.C.C from Slidell, LA
I agree... they come in through the screens, they are awful! I got rid of mine by placing a clear bug strip on a window that gets the last light of the day. They will always head in that direction in the evening - and they find the sticky tab and stick leaving me alone. They only need about 2 or 3 days to reproduce... so taking the trash out often helps. I get them in my garage all the time and just hang a pest strip near the garage light... nabs them quickly as they are attracted to light and with no spraying pesticides. I have done this for years and I am basically gnat and fruit fly free!
How do you get rid of fruit flies? I tried apple cider vinegar. I caught a huge amount of them, but there are 10 stragglers left. Perhaps they are the smarter, more evolved fruit flies.
By Joy
Put some ripe or over-ripe fruit in the microwave and leave the door open for a few hours. When all the fruit flies are in the microwave, close the door and zap them for about 30 seconds.
This morning I got up and opened my fridge. There were many half dead fruit flies in there. I must throw out all the food that may have been open. I even find dead ones in the freezer. I have so many; I kill them daily. I use cider vinegar and dish soap, but they are everywhere in my small apartment. I noticed at the supermarket they were all over, too, in my face at the checkout as well. The checker said they drive her crazy. I never had this problem before. I need help.
By June
Fruit flies are attracted to rotting fruit and sugary things like recycle cans from pop or juice boxes. You must eliminate the places that they are hatching from. Some also seem to live in house plants sometimes. They have a very short life span, and so attempting to kill them is a futile effort. You must clean up anything, fruit bowls, garbage, compost buckets, anything where they might be breeding.
Fruit flies are not like ordinary house flies. I don't think you have to worry about germs being spread, it is the nuisance factor with the little devils.
Squirrels got into the space between my apartment and the one upstairs. They hid their winter nuts in the space and after a couple of months I now have more fruit flies than I can kill daily. The complex is preparing to clean the space, but I need help getting rid of the flies in my apartment. Help. Please.
By beho from Mobile, AL
First, shoot the squirrels.
Then, make a fruit fly trap:
Pour an inch or two of vinegar into a cup. add a drop or two of dish soap.
Cover the cup with saran or similar. Poke a bunch of holes in the saran, and set near where the fruit flies congregate.
They smell the vinegar, climb in, and when they come in contact with the vinegar get sucked down into it because of the effect the dish soap has on the surface tension of the vinegar.
I have been inundated lately with these pesky flies. Not only are they in my kitchen but are now all over my house. They seem to be attracted to my bathroom and bedroom mirrors. I have no food in these rooms and can't figure out where they are coming from. Help please.
By Joanne D.
Fruit flies are drawn to anything acidic, even lemon scented dish detergent. If you keep glass cleaner in the bathroom that is likely the attraction. Using a small jam jar or baby food jar I'll almost fill it with vinegar water along with a drop of dish detergent and float a small slice of lemon or orange and dunk it under then allow it to float. This attracts the flies that will try to land on the slice of fruit, but the detergent prevents them from leaving as they rely on surface tension.
I do not have any over-ripe fruit or garbage around. I'm very clean, yet I have so many fruit flies. I put a cup of sweet wine on the table and there will be as many as 24 a day in the cup.
Now I am wondering how they can continually keep popping up in the kitchen? Is there a greater problem with them this year? I hear bed-bugs are a problem also. I'm 79 years old and never have experienced anything like this.
Is there a scientific answer to this? I do not have food for them to be attracted to on the counters, etc. However, I keep that wine cup.
Thanks.
By aca
I don't have much faith in the wine trap - I think you just get inebriated fruit flies! They only live a few days anyway. Fruit flies can live & breed in recycle pop cans or juice boxes, or also in the dirt of house plants. You don't have to have anything particularly dirty to breed them once they get a foothold. They usually come into the house on fruit.
I have fruit flies in the house, but they seem to be found the most in the living room. I do not keep fruit on the counter in my kitchen and I have made sure my drains are clean. I am sure that the fruit flies have something to do with some new plants that my husband put in the living room since we have never had them in the living room before. Is there anyway to keep them from coming back once I get rid of them?
By Alissa
This is a variation on the Fruit Fly Motel.
Make a fruit fly flytrap by putting a small amount of a banana in a shallow dish, cover it with a plastic wrap, stretching and holding it with a rubber band. Pierce some holes on the cover. Attracted to the smell of the fruit the flies will crawl in and would not be able to escape.
I need an easy way to kill off fruit flies in my kitchen. Thanks.
By Ron
I've personally found that the best solution is to put banana peels or other fragrant fruit peels in a plastic bread bag and prop it open a bit so that they can go in. Leave it overnight, and in the morning, snap the bag up and put the tie on it and toss it in the trash. Sometimes I have to do it a couple times to get them all, but they will always gravitate to it. It could be a bottle or jar that you could slap a lid on as well.
