Fruit flies: Where do they come from and how do you get rid of them?

[Sunny Simmons Steincamp]

Ugh. I have them this year, too. It all got started over Beltane weekend when I had 50 people camping on our property and mounds of fruit sitting out in the kitchen for all the kids. They're STILL not gone, and I have a tight-fitting lid on my compost bucket, no food out since (I, too, put away even things I normally leave out, like onions & taters & such,) a trash compactor that doesn't seem to be particuarly interesting to the critters (maybe because all the food waste goes either to the dogs or into the compost bucket,) and am a manic kitchen cleaner.

I didn't invest in or assemble any fancy traps, but found that leaving out a bottle of wine with just a smidgen in the bottle does trap a bunch of them -- though not enough. Another homesteading friend of mine recommended pouring ammonia down my sinks (which I hate to do, considering I'm on a septic system, but was desperate enough to try,) to no real noticeable avail.

The past few days I have finally started to see a drop in their numbers... coinciding nicely with my hanging up of horribly unsightly, but apparently effective, fly strips. No pictures of it getting in my hair, but I had a devil of a time scrubbing the goo off the base of my paper towel stand after it got bumped up against the very bottom edge of one. I'm crossing my fingers that this will continue to get them. There sure are a ton of 'em being caught there, that's for sure.

Good luck!

[Catew]

Get a tall glass and put about an inch of beer, wine, or fruit juice in it. Now take a sandwich bag and cut one corner off -- about a 1/4" cut. Now push that cut corner down into the glass so that the opening is about an inch above the liquid. Take the rest of the baggie and pull it over the edge of the glass.

The fruit flies will fly in and won't be able to get out -- it's the inverted funnel effect that does it. Here is a link for a similar idea for mosquitoes (larger scale, of course).

Mosquito Trap

[Alex]

Get a tall glass and put about an inch of beer, wine, or fruit juice in it.  Now take a sandwich bag and cut one corner off -- about a 1/4" cut.  Now push that cut corner down into the glass so that the opening is about an inch above the liquid.  Take the rest of the baggie and pull it over the edge of the glass.

The fruit flies will fly in and won't be able to get out -- it's the inverted funnel effect that does it.  Here is a link for a similar idea for mosquitoes (larger scale, of course).

Mosquito Trap

←

Catew, thanks for the info, but the Mosquito Trap link is dead. Is there a live one somewhere? Itchy legs want to know....

[jsolomon]

I would put my money on removing their food source.

Check where you store your veggies, roots, and fruit. Something is making sure they can eat. When you find it, throw out the bad stuff and clean well. Fruit flies will go away.

[Sam Iam]

Alex, the link was working about 4 AM. Perhaps it will be back up later.

[msfurious1]

Yes, you should remove any food sources. I kept a fruit bowl full and out all last summer on the dining room table for easy access for the kids.

I guess, that's where my problem originated. This Website helped me last fall when we had an invasion of fruit flies. It was quite a while before I would even bring bananas back into the house.

The rest of the fruit was kept in the fridge. I put all table scraps in several plastic bags before going into the garbage can and emptied and removed the garbage from inside the house a couple times a day.

I filled about 6 or 8 small 6oz. glasses with a drop of dish detergent in the bottom (don't get any on any other part of the glass) and then filled with about 2 inches of cider vinegar. As the website says they are attracted to the "traps" because the vinegar gives off the odor of decomposing apples (fruit). I didn't bother with any funnels, cones or baggies on top of the glasses.

Make up and set out as many of the traps as you think you need. I set out 3 in the kitchen. 2 in the living room and 2 in the dining room.

We knew we had an infestation, but were surprised by just how many flies were dead in the cups everyday.

Cider vinegar is cheap, so I disposed of the floating graveyards and refilled every day for about a week until we were sure they were all gone.

I didn't do any entertaining during this time.

[Nyleve Baar]

The very best bait I've found for fruit flies is - surprise, surprise - rotting fruit. Plums or peaches work very well, but I suspect anything sweet would do. Just put a chunk into a jar, stretch plastic wrap over the top and secure with a rubber band. Poke ONE hole in the top. You may have to do this for a few days and eventually change the fruit. Position the trap in the vicinity of where the fruit flies are most numerous. You will NOT BELIEVE how well this works. And it's cheap.

[eSkillet.com]

I would put my money on removing their food source.

Check where you store your veggies, roots, and fruit.  Something is making sure they can eat.  When you find it, throw out the bad stuff and clean well.  Fruit flies will go away.

←

Exactly.

All of these methods of "trapping" them, ie: wine, vinegar, sugar etc. are effective for collecting fruit flies but would they not by nature also contribute to the population problem to begin with?

[sanrensho]

Exactly.

All of these methods of "trapping" them, ie: wine, vinegar, sugar etc. are effective for collecting fruit flies but would they not by nature also contribute to the population problem to begin with?

←

No. The fruit flies drown in the solution and have no way of getting out. It works.

[andiesenji]

I put a little apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a bucket and drop in a piece of peach or apricot.

In a 16 oz spray bottle I mix an ounce of Avon Skin-So-Soft oil, an ounce of Listerine mouthwash (actually I use a generic) a couple of drops of Dawn detergent and fill (carefully so it doesn't foam up) with water.

The fruit flies will gather in the bucket and if you set the sprayer to spray a wide pattern, it will knock down most of the flies in the bucket.

I have tried just about everything and this has been the quickest way to get the most of them.

I make sure that absolutely everything that might be harboring the little devils is thrown out.

My last problem was a sneaky rotten onion that had fallen out of the back of the basket in which it was stored.

I keep most fruit out to ripen in wire baskets, but cover the baskets with the mesh "umbrellas" that are made for picnics. They are made from very fine nylon, too small for fruit flies to get through.

[eSkillet.com]

No. The fruit flies drown in the solution and have no way of getting out. It works.

←

It works at killing them. My point is that if there is no food source then there will be no fruit flies.

I can go for days without seeing a fruit fly but as soon as I leave a glass of wine out on the counter they suddenly appear.

[Mallet]

No. The fruit flies drown in the solution and have no way of getting out. It works.

←

It works at killing them. My point is that if there is no food source then there will be no fruit flies.

I can go for days without seeing a fruit fly but as soon as I leave a glass of wine out on the counter they suddenly appear.

←

Well they're not breeding in the wine, that's for sure .

[sparrowgrass]

I keep my fruit that needs ripening in the microwave--remembering to take it out when I need to heat something up, of course.

The fruit flies can't get in there.

There is similar fly called a sewer fly--they breed in your sink drain trap, and flutter around the kitchen like a fruit fly. Get rid of them with a pan full of boiling soapy water down the drain once a week or so. I have never seen them anywhere but here (Missouri Ozarks) but I see them frequently.

[Kayakado]

Thanks, I need to try some of these remedies - I get fruit flies in the cat litter boxes, even though I clean them everyday.

[Eilen]

I keep most fruit out to ripen in wire baskets, but cover the baskets with the mesh "umbrellas" that are made for picnics.  They are made from very fine nylon, too small for fruit flies to get through.

←

andiesenji, do you know where one might find these "umbrellas"? It sounds like a nifty trick mainly because I hate putting fruit in the fridge. Much thanks.

[andiesenji]

I have all of these, plus a couple of others I found at stores, such as the kitchen store in the outlet mall and at Target.

The large pop up one fits nicely over a large SS colander which is where I have apricots and peaches.

pop up mesh food tents

small food tent

large food tent

[Catherine Iino]

My latest method of dealing with fruit flies is vacuuming them up. They are maddeningly impossible to swat, but it's quite easy to suck 'em up with a vacuum cleaner hose. I vacuum up all that I can, wait a few minutes, and do it again, repeat until there aren't any more. This seems to take care of them for a week or so. Good luck!

[BeJam]

So I'm into week 8 of red wine vinegar production and despite having read to expect flies, I didn't think it would happen to me because I'm in the UP close to Lake Superior and we've already had about a foot of snow. Denial maybe? Likely. I even had a small tear in the paper towel cover that I didn't bother to replace it because I wasn't going to get flies.

Of course you know where this story is going. Two days ago I had no flies, then yesterday about 30. They were all over the cover, inside the jar, and just buzzing around. And they are quick as if they know I'm going to kill them. I got a few and stopped short of spraying the top of the jar with raid that would have probably affected the flavor of the final vinegar.

So then I got to thinking about where they come from. They didn't come from outside because it’s been well below freezing several times and I was gone for a few days if that matters. So where? Are ff eggs in fruit already just waiting for some rotting matter to draw them out? Are the eggs in my clothes or in the wood work waiting in hibernation? Maybe those thirty flies are laying eggs right now all over the place waiting for the next smorgasbord of decaying fruit flesh. Now that I think about it, fruit flies don't seem to have a season.

Maybe this will make a good Halloween story.

UP is Upper Peninsula of Michigan for you trolls below the bridge.

[SheenaGreena]

spraying raid doesn't work by the way, it does absolutely nothing. You better hide that vinegar or you will be bombarded.

I bet they are coming in from outside, like near your house, through the cracks and windows.

[andiesenji]

It's a mystery. However the eggs can hitchike on any kind of fruit or vegetable. I purchased a bag of potatoes a month or so ago and left it in my van overnight. When I pulled it out of the van the next morning there was a swarm of tiny fruit flies in the bag, only a few had escaped. There was nothing else in the van which had recently been detailed.

Fortunately I opened the bag outside.

I have several of these in my kitchen and pantry.

They work very well.

Edited October 27, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[Jean Blanchard]

Don't know where they come from but a small amount of apple cider in a glass with a couple of drops of liquid detergent and a few minutes later, they're floating in the glass. Works for me anyway.

[KitchenQueen]

I think all fruit flies originate in my kitchen.

No flames please, I'm working on it.

[highchef]

Fruit flies are on every bit of fruit you bring home, from the yard or the store. Especially the yard. I bring in fruit this time of year and have to lliterally scrub it under water to make sure I get any eggs off so they can ripen (persimmons) unhindered. Citrus has the same issues, except I find it's more of that mold stuff that they bring home from the store and then infect the home grown stuff. (i grow oranges, satsumas etc. but no lemons). I can usually smell the mold from the lemons pretty quickly though. I find if I wash everything very, very well, that I limit problems....said limit. I don't think you can eliminate them forever.

[mizducky]

Interesting webpage on fruit flies -- including methods of preventing infestations, and fighting them once they happen, including a home-made (and homely-looking) version of the trap andisenji linked to upstream.

[tamiam]

Frui flies? They come from red wine. I dont know how they go from invisible to full sized annoying flyers within one minute of opening a bottle, but since it always happens that way, that must be how it works

Maybe they are like those instant seahorses from the old comic books.