Every Homeowner will experience fruit flies at some time. Therefore, learning how to get rid of fruit flies at some point in their life is crucial. These tiny, red-eyed gnats are rarely seen traveling alone and frequently arrive and pop out of nowhere. If you do not take action immediately, you'll soon find yourself in a battle to regain control of your kitchen, your kitchen countertops, and sharing the contents of your fruit bowl with hundreds of uninvited guests. It is important to move swiftly as their are different types of flies that pose dangers.
Have you recently discovered a fruit fly infestation? Contact pest control for the quickest results; however, if you wish to try and handle the concerns yourself first, here are some tips. Fruit flies can be eliminated quickly and easily using homemade traps and commercial pest control products. You should be able to stop your fruit fly issue on your own if you carefully apply these suggestions.
What triggers an invasion of fruit flies?
To solve the issue, you need to comprehend the primary cause of the fruit flies' invasion of your home. Typically, fruits and vegetables bought at the grocery store or farmer's market are the sources of these annoying tiny pests entering your home. Although thoroughly washing vegetables might help rid adult flies, it can be challenging to determine whether they have already set eggs in your food. And they are more than happy to establish a camp if they discover a good food source in your kitchen.
Once inside your home, fruit flies will look for ripe produce to deposit their eggs on and other decomposing objects like rubbish. Fruit fly larvae typically hatch in a day or two and eat ripe fruits for the next week. They will become fully fledged adult fruit flies in about a week, at which point they will lay their eggs. Because of their short lifespan, fruit flies can be challenging to get rid of.
But first: Are they fruit flies?
It's possible that the gnats you see flying around aren't even fruit flies. Fruit flies are tiny, brown bugs with red eyes; however, they can be mistaken for drain flies or fungus gnats. If you suspect drain flies, read our pest control blog post on Why Am I Getting Drain Flies?
Given that this is where they deposit their eggs, fungus gnats are typically observed milling around the soil of indoor plants. They are black. On the other hand, drain flies have larger V-shaped wings and are frequently seen near sink drains or garbage disposals; they resemble tiny moths. To stop fungus gnats or drain flies from laying eggs, you'll need to wipe out their separate nesting areas, but the same traps frequently work on these insects.
Fruit flies: How to get rid of them
Deep-clean your kitchen first. Throwing away anything on your kitchen counter is the first step in ridding your home of the fruit flies because they may have placed their eggs on ripe or rotten food. Do you want to eat that apple? Fruit fly larvae tunnel into produce to feed, which may seem like a waste. Any fresh produce you bring home should be washed thoroughly and kept in the refrigerator until the bugs are defeated.
You may want to take the garbage and trash out more frequently since fruit flies might breed in your trash can, mainly if it contains rotting food. Additionally, it would help if you flushed your garbage disposal. To remove any food that is stuck on:
Grind a few ice cubes, then rinse with hot water.
Keep your kitchen, counters, and trash can as clean as possible for at least a week to stop female fruit flies from laying new eggs.
Regularly wipe down counters and keep them clean to ensure the flies don't discover any food leftovers.
Use apple cider vinegar to catch flies.
Fruit flies can be prevented from reproducing by cleaning your kitchen, but you'll probably also want to eliminate the insects buzzing around your house. (You could wait for them to disappear, but under the right circumstances, they can survive for up to two weeks.) The best method to accomplish this is with a homemade fruit fly trap that you can create from supplies already in your cupboard.
Be sure to add around three to five drops of your favorite dish soap to a small bowl of apple cider vinegar (ACV). Because it smells like fermenting fruit, apple cider vinegar repels fruit flies better than white vinegar. Red wine vinegar will also function but is typically more expensive than apple cider vinegar. To make the vinegar more potent smelling, microwave the mixture of the two for about 30 seconds. After it is completed, put the bowl somewhere where there the flies are lingering. The aroma mixture will entice the insects, and because the dish soap lowers the liquid's surface tension, they will become trapped and drown. Within a few hours, you'll start to see progress. When the mixed solution begins to get saturated with dead flies, dump it and refill it.
Catch the fruit flies in a bottle.
Another standard do-it-yourself solution is to catch the flies in a bottle; a bottle of beer, fruit juice, or wine with all the liquid removed works nicely. Put a rubber band and plastic wrap over the bottle's opening, then pierce several tiny holes in the top. The flies will go inside after being drawn by the pleasant aroma of fermenting grapes, become stuck, and eventually perish.
Purchase a ready-made fruit fly trap.
You can purchase fruit fly traps online or from home improvement stores if you don't want to use a vinegar trap or another do-it-yourself alternative. For instance, some Fruit Fly Trap comes with a liquid that you pour into the apple-shaped trap; the aroma attracts the insects, who eventually drown due to the liquid's scent. A comparable option is Fly punch; to use it, you flip the top open and place the container near the insects.
How can fruit flies be eliminated in just five minutes?
Wouldn't it be excellent if you were able to rid your home of fruit flies in a few minutes? But sadly, eradicating an infestation will require more time. The use of a fly swatter with a fine-mesh surface or spraying it with isopropyl alcohol will kill the flies you can see. However, as a long-term remedy, you should also clean your kitchen and eliminate any overripe produce where the bugs might lay their eggs.
How can fruit flies be eliminated overnight?
You might wish to spend money on an insect trap if you want to catch fruit flies at night. In the dark, a light on these devices will attract flies to them. The device's fan then draws the insects into the trap, which attaches to the sticky paper at the bottom. You may toss the paper in the trash and replace it with a brand-new one in the morning. Remember that this won't magically fix the issue in one evening—as mentioned above, you'll probably still want to clean your kitchen—but in a multifaceted strategy, this can be an excellent tool for permanently getting rid of fruit flies.
Pest Control Company For Fruit Flies
remember, those mentioned above are just simple tidbits of information to assist those who may want to try and eliminate fruit flies themselves. If you wish for quick, immediate results, it is always best to contact the services of a local pest control company.